Article
Article
Muscovite
Article By:
Guggenheim, Stephen Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois.
Last reviewed:November 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.440000
A phyllosilicate (sheet silicate) mineral of the mica group with an ideal composition of KAl2(AlSi3)O10(OH)2. Muscovite sometimes is referred to as a white mica or potash mica. Muscovite occurs commonly in all the major rock types, in igneous rocks (granites, pegmatites, and hydrothermal alteration products), in metamorphic rocks (slates, phyllites, schists, and gneisses), and in sedimentary rocks, including sandstones and other clastic rocks (Fig. 1).
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