What is p pegmatite used for?

1. What is pegmatite used for today?
2. What type of rock is pegmatite?
3. Where are pegmatites found?
4. What minerals are in pegmatite?
5. What is the difference between pegmatite and granite?
6. Why are pegmatites called Nature's jewelry box?
7. What color is a pegmatite rock?
8. What color is pegmatite?
9. Is there gold in pegmatites?
10. Why are pegmatites important to society?
11. Why do pegmatites have very large crystals?
12. What is simple pegmatite?
13. What rock makes diamonds?
14. What defines a pegmatite?

What is pegmatite used for today?

Pegmatite is often mined for industrial minerals. Large sheets of mica are mined from pegmatite. These are used to make components for electronic devices, retardation plates, circuit boards, optical filters, detector windows, and many other products. Feldspar is another mineral frequently mined from pegmatite.

What type of rock is pegmatite?

pegmatite, almost any wholly crystalline igneous rock that is at least in part very coarse grained, the major constituents of which include minerals typically found in ordinary igneous rocks and in which extreme textural variations, especially in grain size, are characteristic.

Where are pegmatites found?

Pegmatite is found in all over the world. They are most abundant old rocks. Some are found in large intrusive igneous rocks, while others are scattered over rocks surrounding intrusive magmatic rocks. Worldwide, notable pegmatite occurrences are within the major cratons, and within greenschist-facies metamorphic belts.

What minerals are in pegmatite?

Compositionally, the pegmatites consist of the feldspars, quartz, and muscovite with local concentrations of accessory minerals such as beryl , spodumene , tourmaline , columbite -tantalite, triphylite-lithiophilite, amblygonite , and minor sulfides and arsenides.

What is the difference between pegmatite and granite?

Pegmatite is chemically identical to granite, but has a much coarser crystal structure. Common colors are gray, white, and pink. Pegmatite is quarried for decorative stone and as a source of beryllium, columbium and tantalum when these are present.

Why are pegmatites called Nature's jewelry box?

Minas Gerais is rich in granite geologic formations known as pegmatites. These pegmatites are sometimes called "nature's jewel box" because of the vast array of gemstones that they may contain. ... Huge quantities are mined from the basaltic lava flows to supply the gem markets around the world.

What color is a pegmatite rock?

The color of the pegmatite is clear, between white and pink.

There are also some variety of gray and cream colors. It has large crystals and penetration twins. When rock structures are analyzed, each one has something different.

What color is pegmatite?

Pegmatite in which the main ingredients are biotite mica (black), microcline (pink), oligoclase (white), and quartz (gray). The rock has a monzogranitic composition.

Is there gold in pegmatites?

Gold can occur in economic grades in Pegmatites are magmas containing granitic type minerals (feldspar, quartz, mica) which cool slowly and thus allow for very large crystals (>2.5cm) to form. ... The fluid percolates through the overlying rock and deposits minerals which may contain gold amongst other valuable metals.

Why are pegmatites important to society?

Pegmatites are important because they often contain rare earth minerals and gemstones, such as aquamarine, tourmaline, topaz, fluorite, apatite and corundum, often along with tin and tungsten minerals, among others. ... The majority of the world's beryllium is sourced from non-gem quality beryl within pegmatite.

Why do pegmatites have very large crystals?

Large crystals in igneous rocks are usually attributed to a slow rate of crystallization. However, with pegmatites, large crystals are attributed to low-viscosity fluids that allow ions to be very mobile. ... This allows them to move about freely and form crystals rapidly. This is why crystals of a pegmatite grow so large.

What is simple pegmatite?

A pegmatite is an intrusive igneous body of highly variable grain size that often includes coarse crystal growth. ... A simple granite pegmatite may contain only quartz, feldspar , and mica.

What rock makes diamonds?

Diamond is only formed at high pressures. It is found in kimberlite, an ultrabasic volcanic rock formed very deep in the Earth's crust. The extreme pressures needed to form diamonds are only reached at depths greater than 150km.

What defines a pegmatite?

Pegmatites are unusually coarse-grained crystalline igneous rocks, usually of granitic composition and characterized by interlocking crystals several centimeters up to tens of meters in length. From: Encyclopedia of Geology (Second Edition), 2021.