An Experimental Study of Ordering in Sodium-Rich Alkali Feldspars

Ian Parsons
Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Marischal College, Aberdeen

Summary: Variations in the value of 2θ131−2θ13¯1 of two anorthoclase feldspars of compositions Ab95Or5 and Ab90Or10 were investigated by hydrothermal crystallization of gels for long periods in the temperature range 500–950 °C, at water vapour pressures up to 15 000 lb/in.2. The results are compared to those obtained by MacKenzie (1957) for pure albite. It is shown that the variation in 2θ131−2θ13¯1 is largely the result of Al-Si order-disorder and that at 700 °C and above the magnitude of the variation in the anorthoclases suggests that the degree of order is like that in albite, but at lower temperatures, particularly below 600 °C, the variation is less, and the anorthoclases are less ordered than albite at the same temperatures. At 600 °C and above the rate of attainment of equilibrium is the same for all three compositions. Below 600 °C Ab95Or5 behaves differently to albite. At low temperatures the equilibrium degree of Al-Si order in mixed Na-K feldspars is a function of composition as well as of temperature of crystallization.

Mineralogical Magazine; December 1968 v. 36; no. 284; p. 1061-1077; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1968.036.284.04
© 1968, The Mineralogical Society
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