Sanidine: Predicted and Observed Monoclinic-to-Triclinic Reversible Transformations at High Pressure.
High sanidine, (K,Na)AlSi(3)O(8), transforms reversibly to a triclinic phase at high pressure. This is analogous to the high-temperature monalbite transformation. Disordered alkali feldspars of various compositions have unit-cell dimensions which are very similar at the transition (a = 8.30 A, b = 12.97 A, c = 7.14 A, and beta = 116.2 degrees ), indicating that the transformation is structurally controlled. Changes in temperature, pressure, and the sodium/potassium ratio cause similar structural variations: angles between adjacent, rigid tetrahedra vary to accommodate changing effective alkali cation sizes.
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