Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-2-of-the-earth-sciences-geology-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/paper-1/8/iii/solution

For the reaction direction in part ii, pure solids and unit water activity give . Therefore
Plot a vertical line through the common intersection, independent of . Increasing dissolved silica favors albite, consistently with its larger Si/Al ratio. The vertical line’s stable and metastable portions are selected by comparison with corundum, not by its own mass-action equation alone.

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