the.com/feldspar
the most abundant mineral on Earth, hiding in plain sight under everyone's boots.
means A large group of rock-forming aluminum-silicate minerals (rich in potassium, sodium, or calcium) that make up the bulk of the Earth's crust.
from From the German 'Feldspat,' a marriage of 'Feld' (field) and 'Spat,' an old miners' word for a pale, easily-cleaving mineral. The 'field' part likely points to the fact that this stuff turned up everywhere in plowed fields — the rock you'd curse when it dulled your blade. English borrowed it in the 18th century, and the spelling drifted toward 'spar' (an existing English word for crystalline cleaving minerals, as in 'Iceland spar'), which is why we say feldspar rather than the more literal 'feldspath.'
- crust share
- Makes up about 60% of Earth's crust.
- moon dust
- Coats the lunar highlands in pale anorthosite.
- countertop muscle
- Gives granite slabs their speckled, glassy shine.
- toothpaste grit
- Once scrubbed teeth as a gentle abrasive.
- moonstone secret
- Some feldspars glow with an inner blue shimmer.
orthoclase feldspar — comprises ~60% of earth's continental crust and is the most abundant mineral in granitic rocks worldwide
plagioclase feldspar — makes up ~39% of the moon's surface, visible as light highlands in lunar samples from apollo missions
amazonite — blue-green microcline feldspar mined in amazonas, brazil and prized in jewelry since ancient egypt