An experimental study of ordering in sodium-rich alkali feldspars

Abstract

Variations in the value of 2θ₁₃₁ – 2θ_13̄1 of two anorthoclase feldspars of compositions Ab₉₅Or₅ and Ab₉₀Or₁₀ were investigated by hydrothermal crystallization of gels for long periods in the temperature range 500–950 °C, at water vapour pressures up to 15 000 lb/in.². The results are compared to those obtained by MacKenzie (1957) for pure albite. It is shown that the variation in 2θ₁₃₁ – 2θ_13̄1 is largely the result of Al-Si order-disorder and that at 700 °C and above the magnitude of the variation in the anorthoclases suggests that the degree of order is like that in albite, but at lower temperatures, particularly below 600 °C, the variation is less, and the anorthoclases are less ordered than albite at the same temperatures. At 600 °C and above the rate of attainment of equilibrium is the same for all three compositions. Below 600 °C Ab₉₅Or₅ behaves differently to albite. At low temperatures the equilibrium degree of Al-Si order in mixed Na-K feldspars is a function of composition as well as of temperature of crystallization.