Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations

Roan Mountain Highlands · By Dirk Frankenberg and Jennifer Godwin-Wyer

A group of rock-forming minerals, considered to be the most abundant of all minerals. Feldspars are the principal constituents of igneous and plutonic rocks and contain silicon, oxygen, aluminum, and some combination of the metals sodium, potassium, and calcium. They are hard, opaque, and break along flat, reflective surfaces, which meet at right angles.