PET ROLOGY

lgneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic

THIR D EDITION

HARVEY BLATT
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

ROBERT

J. TRACY

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

BRENT E. OWENS
The College of William and Mary

11

W. H. Freeman and Company

New York

Chapter 3

TABLE 3-1
Element
Fe

o
Si
Mg
Ni
Ca
Al
Na

Chemistry, Physics, and Classification of Igneous Rocks

Chemical composition (wt%) of earth, mantle, and crust

Earth

Oxide

Mantle

Oceanic crusth

Continental crustc

31
30
18

Si02
Ti2
Al23
Fed

45.2
0.71
3.54
8.48
0.14

49.4
1.4
15.4
10.l
0.3
7.6

60.3
1.0
15.6
7.2
0.1

16
1.7
1.8
1.4
0.9

Mn
Mg
Ca
Na20
K20
P205

37.48
3.08

12.5
2.6

0.57
0.13

3.9
5.8

0.3

3.2
2.5

0.2

0.2

A. E. Ringwood , 1975, Composition and Petrology of the Earth's Mantle. New York: McGraw-Hill.
bA. B. Ronov and A. A. Yarovshevsky, 1969, Chemical Composition of the Earth's Crust. American Geophysical Union Monograph 13.

cs. R. Taylor, 1964, Abundance of chemical elements in the continental crust: a new table. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 28: 12731285.

dTotal iron oxide (FeO + Fe203).

magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, and phospho

rus. The normal manner of reporting abundances of the
majar and minar elements is in the fonn of their simple
oxides, that is, Si02, Ti02, AI203, FeO, Fe203, MnO,
Mg, CaO, Na20, K20, and P205. Other majar elements
are sul fur, fluorine, and chlorine in their elemental
fonn. Ali other elements are reported as trace
elements in parts per million or parts per billion. The
usual convention is to report compositional data on a
weight basis.
Although rock and mineral analyses are commonly
presented as weight percents of oxides, molar amounts
are used far many petrologic purposes. The conversion
from weight percent to mole percent is straightforward
and utilizes the molecular weights of the oxides, which
can be calculated from a periodic table or found in
many mineralogy texts such as Deer, Howie, and Zuss
man (1993). To convert, simply divide the weight per
cent of each oxide by its molecular weight. Add all

TABLE 3-2
Oxide

these values, and then normalize to 100%. Table 32 shows results of a sample calculation far a simple
rock analysis.
1\vo other important chemical constituents are water
and carbon dioxide. In an igneousrock, these
compounds
occur in an analysis only if there are hydrous or
carbon ate minerals that contain them and if these
compounds
are detectable by the analytical technique used; see be
low). Majar amounts of these two constituents are dis
solved in many magmas but are mostly to completely
lost in the crystallization process. It is very important to
keep in mind that the absence of these chemical compo
nents from an igneous rock chemical analysis does not
imply their absence from the original magma. Both
water and carbon dioxide can play highly significant
roles in the origin, transport, and crystallization of mag
mas through control of phase equilibrium processes and
magma physical behavior, as discussed below.

Sample conversion of weight percent oxides to mole percent oxides

Weight percent

Molecular weight

Wt%/mw

Mole %

Si2
Ti2
Al23
Fe
Mg
CaO
Na20
K20

Total

72.04
0.30
14.42
2.90
0.71
1.82
3.69
4.12
100.00

60.09
79.90
101.935
71.85
40.31
56.08
61.85
94.20

1.1989
0.0038
0.1415
0.0404
0.0176
0.0324
0.0597
0.0437
1.5380

77.95
0.25
9.20
2.63
1.14
2.11
3.88
2.84
100.00