Chromium: Its Physicochemical Behavior and Petrologic Significance

Book excerpt: Chromium: Its Physicochemical Behavior and Petrologic Significance is a collection of papers presented at an interdisciplinary conference on the physicochemical behavior and petrologic significance of chromium, held at the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington on January 7-8, 1974. Contributors explore the physicochemical behavior and petrologic significance of chromium and cover a wide range of topics, including the mineralogy of chromium and thermochemistry of chromium compounds. Comprised of 23 chapters, this book begins with a discussion on phase relations in chromium oxide-containing systems at elevated temperatures, followed by an analysis of the chromium-oxygen system at high oxygen pressures. Subsequent chapters focus on crystal field effects in chromium and its partitioning in the mantle; trivalent and divalent chromium ions in spinels; distribution and significance of chromium in meteorites; and chrome-spinel in progressive metamorphism. The paragenesis of zoned chromite from central Manitoba is also considered, along with postcumulus and subsolidus equilibration of chromite and coexisting silicates in the Eastern Bush veld Complex. The final chapter presents a hypothesis of origin for podiform chromite deposits. This monograph will be of interest to physicists, chemists, and geologists.