Mineral systems, their types, and distribution in nature. I. Khibiny, Lovozero, and the Mont Saint-Hilaire

Abstract

In accordance with the set of species-defining chemical elements in minerals, n-component systems (where n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) for all mineral species (4952) known to 2014 inclusive were distinguished. Seventy chemical elements have been established to be species-defining, which are distributed by mineral systems as follows: 1 (29), 2 (62), 3 (68), 4 (61), 5 (61), 6 (55), 7 (49), 8 (38), 9 (28), and 10 (19). The number of mineral species in which certain chemical elements are species-defining has been specified. Oxygen (4041), hydrogen (2755), silicon (1448), calcium (1139), sulfur (1025), aluminum (960), iron (917), sodium (914), copper (616), phosphorous (580), arsenic (575), and magnesium (550) are the leading elements in minerals in the Earth’s crust. It has been found that the most species-defining elements are normally distributed by mineral systems. The distributions of mineral species in various systems from the Khibiny and Lovozero, Kola Peninsula, Russia; and Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada peralkaline plutons were compared and the characters of species-defining element distribution in these localities were compared. Si, Na, K, C, F, Ti, Ce, Zr, Nb, Sr, and Th are “excess” species-defining elements in minerals from the plutons compared to the total number of mineral species, whereas S, Cu, Pb, Cl, B, Te, Ag, Ni, and Be are “scarce” elements.