Comments on: Bowen’s Reaction Series

By: JamesP

JamesP — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 03:58:18 +0000

I’m taking stability to mean resistance to weathering, rather than a structural geology definition of stability of rocks. Since rocks are just a collection of mineral grains, if the grains are easily weathered, you have a weak, incompetent rock. If the mineral grains do not weather away they remain better attached to each other, resulting in a more competent rock. The closer to quartz on Bowen’s reaction series a mineral is, the more stable it is at surface conditions, so a quartzite or a granite will be much more competent than a dunite or ocean floor basalt (after of course the passage of geological time). There is much more to it, but this is the most basic explanation of it.

By: W.

W. — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:38:01 +0000

You just summed up the last 3 months of Igneous Petrology for me! Cheers

By: Ugwu

Ugwu — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:10:32 +0000

This is very good work on bowen reaction series.
kindly explain to me how the stability of rocks is closely related to the position of the component minerals in the bowen reation series???
thanks and expecting your reply. my email is ugemeka@yahoo.com