What are pegmatite rocks used for?

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.

Where is pegmatite commonly found?

Pegmatites are found as irregular dikes, sills, or veins, and are most common at the margins of batholiths (great masses of intrusive igneous rock). Most are closely related spatially and genetically to large intrusions.

Where can you find pegmatite rock?

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 Colour 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.

What is found in pegmatite?

Pegmatite is granite-like rock that isn’t very useful on its own but houses some very beneficial elements such as rare earth elements, lithium, tantalum, niobium, and many gemstones including apatite, aquamarine, emerald, garnet, spodumene, topaz, tourmaline, and zircon.

In what type of environment are pegmatites produced?

In what type of environment are pegmatites produced? Crystallization in a fluid-rich (water and other volatiles) environment, where ion migration is enhanced, results in the formation of crystals several centimeters or even a few meters in length.

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.

What is the age of pegmatite?

3 pegmatite are in ranges of 193–198 Ma, 184–187 Ma and 172–175 Ma, with weighted mean 206Pb–238U ages of 194.8 ± 2.3 Ma, 186.6 ± 1.3 Ma and 173.1 ± 3.9 Ma, respectively.

Is pegmatite a valuable rock?

Pegmatites usually do not support large mining operations. Rare elements concentrated in large crystals may make pegmatite a potential source of valuable ore. Pegmatite deposits may also contain gemstones, industrial minerals, and rare minerals. Overall pegmatite rock has very few uses.

Where does pegmatite occur in nature?

Pegmatite occurs throughout the world within greenschist-facies metamorphic belts and major cratons, which tend to occur in the interior of tectonic plates. The rock tends to be associated with granite.

What is the size of a pegmatite?

Pegmatite: Pegmatite is an igneous rock composed almost entirely of crystals that are over one centimeter in diameter. The specimen shown here is about two inches (five centimeters) across.