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Structure. Pyroxenes are the most common single-chain silicate minerals. (The only other important group of single-chain silicates, the pyroxenoids, are much less common.) Their structure consists of parallel chains of negatively-charged silica tetrahedra bonded together by metal cations.
orthopyroxene, any of a series of common silicate minerals in the pyroxene family. Orthopyroxenes typically occur as fibrous or lamellar (thin-plated) green masses in igneous and metamorphic rocks and in meteorites.
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Metamorphic mafic rocks that contain orthopyroxene (Opx) and plagioclase belong to the granulite facies. Orthopyroxene is a mixture of enstatite and ferrosilite components and is also called hypersthene. It is dark with a brownish tint in hand specimen and colourless to reddish under the microscope.
Orthopyroxenite is an ultramafic and ultrabasic rock that is almost exclusively made from the mineral orthopyroxene, the orthorhombic version of pyroxene and a type of pyroxenite. It can have up to a few percent of olivine and clinopyroxene.
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Orthopyroxene mineral data, information about Orthopyroxene, its properties and worldwide locations.
Orthopyroxene is the most characteristic and important ferromagnesian mineral of the rocks of the charnockite series and is a typical mineral of the granulite facies of regional metamorphism. It is also produced in medium-grade, thermally metamorphosed, argiliaceous rock by the breakdown of chlorite .
Orthorhombic pyroxenes are referred to as orthopyroxenes, and monoclinic pyroxenes are called clinopyroxenes. The essential feature of all pyroxene structures is the linkage of the silicon-oxygen (SiO 4) tetrahedrons by sharing two of the four corners to form continuous chains.
