Equilibrium of mineral systems

Abstract

One of the major objectives of chemical petrology is knowledge of the heterogeneous reactions in the chemical systems of nature. Considerable progress in this direction has been made in the application of methods of experimental phase equilibria and in the theoretical interpretation of observational and experimental data. In this chapter we shall be particularly concerned with applications of theory to some well known systems and its extension to certain less known but important natural systems. In the analysis of the more complex systems a particular advantage of the theoretical-analytical approach lies in the manner in which the pertinent variables are displayed in the derivations and the unambiguous way in which limits, boundary conditions, and assumptions may be kept track of. Another advantage of the analytical approach is that many diagrams may be dispensed with, and those that are used represent simple surfaces or volumes in multi-componental space.