1992 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Silicate minerals
Authors : C. D. Gribble, A. J. Hall
Published in: Optical Mineralogy
Publisher: Springer US
Included in: Professional Book Archive
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All silicate minerals contain silicate oxyanions [SiO4]4−. These units take the form of a tetrahedron, with four oxygen ions at the apices and a silicon ion at the centre. The classification of silicate minerals depends on the degree of polymerization of these tetrahedral units. In silicate minerals, the system of classification commonly used by mineralogists hinges upon how many oxygens in each tetrahedron are shared with other similar tetrahedra.