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The proportion of silica in rocks and minerals is a major factor in determining their names and properties. [7] Rock outcrop along a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. Rocks are classified according to characteristics such as mineral and chemical composition, permeability, texture of the constituent particles, and particle size.
In rocks, some mineral species and groups are much more abundant than others; these are termed the rock-forming minerals. The major examples of these are quartz, the feldspars , the micas , the amphiboles , the pyroxenes , the olivines , and calcite; except for the last one, all of these minerals are silicates. [ 39 ]
Mineralogy applies principles of chemistry, geology, physics and materials science to the study of minerals. Mineralogy [n 1] is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts.
A rock may consist of one type of mineral or may be an aggregate of two or more different types of minerals, spacially segregated into distinct phases. Some natural solid substances without a definite crystalline structure, such as opal or obsidian , are more properly called mineraloids .
Two important variables used for the classification of igneous rocks are particle size, which largely depends on the cooling history, and the mineral composition of the rock. Feldspars , quartz or feldspathoids , olivines , pyroxenes , amphiboles , and micas are all important minerals in the formation of almost all igneous rocks, and they are ...
In these environments, mechanical deformation is more important than chemical reactions in transforming the rock. The minerals present in the rock often do not reflect conditions of chemical equilibrium, and the textures produced by dynamic metamorphism are more significant than the mineral makeup. [65]
However most metals of economic importance are carried as trace elements within rock-forming minerals, and so may be liberated by hydrothermal processes. This happens because of: incompatibility of the metal with its host mineral, for example zinc in calcite, which favours aqueous fluids in contact with the host mineral during diagenesis.
In geology, mineralization is the deposition of economically important metals in the formation of ore bodies or "lodes" by various process. The first scientific studies of this process took place in the English county of Cornwall by J.W.Henwood FRS and later by R.W. Fox, FRS. [1]