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Endmember

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An endmember (also end-member or end member) in mineralogy is a mineral that is at the extreme end of a mineral series in terms of purity. Minerals often can be described as solid solutions with varying compositions of some chemical elements, rather than as substances with an exact chemical formula. There may be two or more endmembers in a group or series of minerals.

For example, the tectosilicate feldspar can be described as a solid solution of the endmembers K-feldspar [KAlSi3O8], albite [NaAlSi3O8] and anorthite [CaAl2Si2O8].[1] A specific feldspar can have varying quantities of potassium (K), sodium (Na) and calcium (Ca).

See also

References

  1. ^ What is Feldspar? Archived 2008-02-15 at the Wayback Machine Industrial Minerals Association. Retrieved on February 9, 2008.