Article
Article
Silicate minerals
Article By:
Frondel, Clifford Formerly, Department of Geological Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.622600
All silicates are built of a fundamental structural unit, the so-called SiO4 tetrahedron. The crystal structure may be based on isolated SiO4 groups or, since each of the four oxygen ions can bond to either one or two silicon (Si) ions, on SiO4 groups shared to form complex isolated groups or indefinitely extending chains, sheets, or three-dimensional networks. Mixed structures in which more than one type of shared tetrahedra are present are also known. See also: Silicon
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