ADULARIA


Meaning of ADULARIA in English

a feldspar mineral that contains more than 80 percent potassium aluminosilicate (KAlSi3O8). It commonly forms colourless, glassy, prismatic, twinned crystals in low-temperature veins of acidic plutonic rocks and in cavities in crystalline schists. Typical occurrences include the schists of the Alps. Adularia and microcline are sometimes considered identical, differing only in the size of their twinned crystals: the twins, two sets of fine, tapering lamellae at right angles to each other that are microscopically visible in microcline, are supposedly present, but invisible, in adularia. Slight differences in refractive indices, specific gravity, temperature of their conversion to sanidine (a high-temperature form of potassium feldspar), and axial angle, however, indicate the existence of two different species.

Britannica English vocabulary.      Английский словарь Британика.