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orthoclase

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orthoclase

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Orthoclase from Serra de Peneda, Portugal
(credit: Emil Javorsky/EB Inc.)
Common alkali feldspar mineral, potassium aluminosilicate (KAlSi3O8), that usually occurs as variously coloured grains in granite. Orthoclase is used in the manufacture of glass and ceramics; occasionally, transparent crystals are cut as gems. It is primarily important as a rock-forming mineral, however, and is abundant in igneous rocks, pegmatites, and gneisses. The feldspar minerals consist of sodium, potassium, and calcium aluminosilicates, and any feldspar may be chemically classed by the percentage of each of these three pure compounds, called end-members. Orthoclase is the potassium-bearing end-member of the system. Microcline is a lower temperature structural form of the same chemical composition as orthoclase.

orthoclase [′ȯr·thə‚klās]
(mineralogy)
KAlSi3O8A colorless, white, cream-yellow, flesh-reddish, or gray potassium feldspar that usually contains some sodium feldspar, either as albite or analbite or in some intermediate state; it is or appears to be monoclinic. Also known as common feldspar; orthose; pegmatolite.


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Feldspar composition is dominantly albite (Na) greater than orthoclase (K).
War Eagle Mining Company Inc. - 2001 Work Program Confirms MAC ... by Business Wire
Quartz porphyry dikes within the residual clays of the Moose Creek areas contain over 50% orthoclase K-spar.
Alchemy Ventures Ltd. - Announces New Feldspar Product Line by Business Wire
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