Silicification,silicosis, polymerization,and aluminosis in geocrystallochemistry of silicates and aluminosilicates

Quantum-chemical interpretations of differentiation of the “normal” magmatic melt (the “Bowen's fork”) show certain defects in the traditionally crystallochemical interpretations of mineral structures and of the sequence of crystallization of minerals. The “dynamic unit,” in transitions from phase to phase and from lattice to lattice, proves to be the uncharged SiO₂ molecule and not the SiO₄ tetrahedron, which is but a static architectural detail of crystal structures. Different mechanisms and types of silicification (figs. 3-8), condensation and structures of the chains (figs. 9-14), structures of zeolites and other aluminosilicates (figs. 14, 17, 18), and the quantumchemical representation of corundum, as “molecular” Al₂O₃, illustrate further reevaluations of traditionalism in mineralogy.