Wikibooks: Planet Earth/6h. Bowen’s Reaction Series.
=The Distribution of Rocks on Earth= navigated his canoe across the densely forested Larder Lake near the border between the Canadian Provinces of Quebec and Ontario a sparsely populated wilderness south of the Hudson Bay in 1907. The rocks in this region are some of the oldest rocks in North Americ...
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| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Planet_Earth/6h._Bowen%E2%80%99s_Reaction_Series. |
| Summary: | =The Distribution of Rocks on Earth= navigated his canoe across the densely forested Larder Lake near the border between the Canadian Provinces of Quebec and Ontario a sparsely populated wilderness south of the Hudson Bay in 1907. The rocks in this region are some of the oldest rocks in North America part of the craton of North America peppered by more recent volcanic igneous rocks leading to the possibility of rich deposits of gold and silver. Bowen was hired to explore this area as a young student by the Ontario Bureau of Mines. During the summer alone in the field Bowen learned to read the rocks by identification of minerals the classification of rock names and the quest to find regions for mining in the area. His experience in the field observing the way minerals were distributed in the rocks underlay the rest of his life even when he later dedicated it to laboratory experiments involved in the heating and melting of minerals to understand how they turned to liquid and how they cooled into crystals. The studies and experiments lead to a great insight into how rocks become enriched and depleted regarding different mineral compositions. His life long work clearly explains why the oceanic crust laying near mid ocean regions are mafic while continental crust is felsic. =Bowen s Reaction Series= Today Bowen’s reaction series that he came up with is a chart that illustrates how various minerals melt at different temperatures. If we think of the Earth’s rock cycle as the continue process of melting and freezing of solid matter on the planet overtime the minerals that melt at lower temperatures will “float” near the surface while minerals that only melt at very high temperatures will “sink” into the Earth. This differentiation of the Earth’s outer crust results in the observed felsic minerals found in continental crust (quartz orthoclase albite and muscovite) while mafic minerals are resigned to oceanic crust (anorthite biotite amphibole pyroxene olivine). The solution is that felsic minerals melt at ... |
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