Mineralogy, Petrology and Crystallography of Silicate Minerals

Dear Colleagues,

Silicates represent the major component of solid planetary materials in the Solar System and are the most studied minerals in the history of geosciences, due to the information that they retain. The exact content in major, minor and trace elements, the distribution of these elements across crystals, the occupancy of structural sites, the relationship with neighbor minerals, the presence of twins or lattice defects, and the occurrence of specific polymorphs are just some of the several signs left by geological processes and recorded in silicates. Thus, studies on silicates provide important information on the conditions under which they crystallized or were deformed, contributing to our understanding of a wide range of geological and planetary processes, from the differentiation in planetesimals to the crack formation induced by intracrystalline diffusion.

This Special Issue aims to collect in a single volume a selection of the variety of information provided by studies on silicates. Contributions based on works on natural parageneses, as well as on experimental calibrations, focused on the reconstruction of the history of a given rock from the information retained in its components, especially using unconventional or less common approaches, are warmly welcome.

Dr. Lidia Pittarello
Dr. Mariko Nagashima
Guest Editors

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