Carl Amiel D.

Amponin
9-Mendeleev

The most abundant minerals in the crust

More than 90% on the crust is composed of silicate minerals. Most abundant silicates are feldspars
(plagioclase (39%) and alkali feldspar (12%)). Other common silicate minerals are quartz (12%)
pyroxenes (11%), amphiboles (5%), micas (5%), and clay minerals (5%). The rest of the silicate family
comprises 3% of the crust. Only 8% of the crust is composed of non-silicates carbonates, oxides,
sulfides, etc.
If these minerals are really that common, we should all be more than familiar with them. Yes, I believe
we are. Even if we dont know how to name them, we have surely seen them. For the most people the
silicates mentioned above are so drab and commonplace that we probably fail to notice or pay any
attention to them. Below is a selection of photos showing these minerals in their natural environments
(outcrops and hand samples). I am intentionally showing minerals within rocks because this is how
they occur in the crust. Beautiful samples with perfect crystal faces may be nice to look at, but they are
rare in the crust. I do not value such crystals as a teaching material. You are extremely unlikely to find
them on your own and therefore they teach us very little.

Plagioclase is the most important mineral in the crust. It is

common in mafic igneous rock like the diabase sample
above. White elongated phenocrysts in finer basaltic
groundmass are plagioclase crystals. Black crystals
belong to pyroxene (mineral augite). Both augite and
plagioclase occur also in the fine-grained groundmass.
Large crystals formed slowly before the magma erupted
and the rest solidified rapidly. Plagioclase is so common because basaltic rocks and their metamorphic
equivalents are very widespread. Most of the oceanic crust is composed of basaltic rocks. The sample is
from Tenerife, Canary Islands. Width of sample 14 cm.

Another sample of basaltic rock but this time with lots of olivine. Olivine (green) is denser than
plagioclase and pyroxene (both are present in the groundmass) and therefore sinks to the bottom of lava
flows where olivine cumulate rocks form. This olivine basalt sample is from Oahu, Hawaii. Width of
sample 6 cm.

Clay minerals are too small to be shown individually. Even with a light microscope you will see only
mud or dust depending on whether these minerals are wet or dry. Clay minerals are silicates that are the
products of weathering of other silicate minerals, mostly feldspars. The picture was taken in a clay
quarry in Estonia.

Biotite is one of two major mica minerals. The other is light-colored muscovite. The sample is from
Evje, Norway. Width of sample 11 cm.