Silicate minerals

Rocks are aggregates of minerals. Many are silicate minerals. This granite, an igneous rock, has Quartz, an amphibole called Hornblende, a pink potassium feldspar, and a white Plagioclase feldspar. Rock-forming Minerals.

Sillimanite is an alumino-silicate mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman (1779–1864). It was first described in 1824 for an occurrence in Chester, Middlesex County, Connecticut, US

Silicate: Google’s Definition: “A salt in which the anion contains both silicon and oxygen, especially one of the anion SiO42−.” Text Example: “The Silicates are the largest, the most interesting, and the most complicated class of minerals by far.” Example: My sentence: “Looking over the silicate-ting minerals his eyes glistened.”

Talc has many uses for the artist. As a pigment powder it can be useful when making paints. It is good for increasing the opacity of very weak colors while minimizing the chalky look of using straight Precipitated Chalk. In Pastels its greasy feel can modify some pigments that tend to set to too hard a pastel. It can exhibit a pearly luster in some circumstances too.

Learn about the silica tetrahedron, the chemical unit that is the basis for all of the silicate minerals.

A handful of very abundant minerals account for the great majority of the Earth's rocks including feldspar and calcite.

Phlogopite mica. Hand sample of dark phlogopite mica sheet mineral isolated on w , #AFF, #sample, #dark, #Hand, #Phlogopite, #mica #ad

5.3 Mineral Groups – Physical Geology, First University of Saskatchewan Edition

Photographs and descriptions of many samples of the element Silicon in the Periodic Table.

Ruizite: a silicate mineral that -forms on metamorphosed limestone was discovered in Christmas Mine in southern Arizona