Mica bookOne family of minerals called phyllosilicates tends to form grains that are extremely flat.
Mica bookOne family of minerals called phyllosilicates tends to form grains that are extremely flat. The root of that term, phyllo, is the same term that appears in the common “phyllo” or “Fillo” dough, which is a very thin layer of dough used in pastries. The original Greek term translates to “leaf”.The thin layers in this type of mineral are created because of the internal pattern of strong and weak bonds. In phyllosilicates, strong silicon-oxygen bonds extend outward in 2 directions, creating a strong plane in the mineral that is hard to break. However, the layers in the third dimension are held together with weak potassium-oxygen bonds. This structure, strong in 2 directions and weak in the third, creates the wafer shape of this grain of the mineral biotite.-JBBImage credit: https://flic.kr/p/29UUAeu -- source link
#biotite#phyllosilicate#filly#phyllo#greek#science#chemistry#mineral#wafer