V.—On Saturated and Unsaturated Igneous Rocks

Abstract

Of the various minerals which enter into the composition of igneous rocks, about one-half are capable of forming in presence of free silica, as is shown by their association in rocks with quartz and tridymite. These may, for the present purpose, be termed saturated minerals; they include some of the most highly silicated compounds of their respective metallic elements. The remaining rock minerals do not appear in association with free silica, and may be presumed to be incapable of stable existence in its presence; they are mostly the less highly silicated compounds of the same metallic elements which, enter into the former group. These may, for the present purpose, be, termed unsaturated minerals. The unsaturated character of any mineral in the latter group is not affected by the temperature and pressure at which crystallization takes place; this is shown by the fact that quartz and the minerals referred to are mutually exclusive both in plutonic and in effusive rocks. In the case of sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium the formation of saturated or unsaturated minerals appears to depend only on the amount of silica available in the magma. Aluminium, ferrosum, and ferricum, elements of feebly basic character, have their combinations largely determined for them by the more strongly basic elements, with which they tend to form either complex molecules or mix-crystals.