Feldspar (including electrical insulators, sanitaryware, pottery, tableware, and tile) and other uses, such as fillers, accounted for the remainder. In earth sciences and archaeology, feldspars are used for K-Ar dating, argon-argon dating, and luminescence dating. In October 2012, the Mars Curiosity rover analyzed a rock that turned out to have a high feldspar content. Feldspar Feldspars (KAlSiO – NaAlSiO – CaAlSiO) are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals that make up about 41% of the Earth's continental crust by weight. Feldspars crystallize from magma as veins in both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks and are also present in many types of
Mineral Family, Tribe, Genus, and Species. The abundance and diversity of minerals is controlled directly by their chemistry, in turn dependent on elemental abundances in the Earth. The majority of minerals observed are derived from the Earth's crust. Eight elements account for most of the key components of minerals, due to their abundance in the crust. These eight elements, summing to over 98% of the crust by weight, are, in order of decreasing abundance: oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. Oxygen and silicon are by far the two most important – oxygen composes 47% of the crust by