Editing Mafic (section)

==History==
The term ''mafic'' is a [[portmanteau]] of "magnesium" and "ferric" and was coined by [[Charles Whitman Cross]], [[Joseph P. Iddings]], [[Louis V. Pirsson]], and [[Henry Stephens Washington]] in 1912. Cross' group had previously divided the major rock-forming minerals found in igneous rocks into ''salic'' minerals, such as [[quartz]], [[feldspar]]s, or [[feldspathoid]]s, and ''femic'' minerals, such as [[olivine]] and [[pyroxene]]. However, [[mica]]s and aluminium-rich [[amphibole]]s were excluded, while some calcium minerals containing little iron or magnesium, such as [[wollastonite]] or [[apatite]], were included in the femic minerals.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cross |first1=Whitman |last2=Iddings |first2=Joseph P. |last3=Pirsson |first3=Louis V. |last4=Washington |first4=Henry S. |title=A Quantitative Chemico-Mineralogical Classification and Nomenclature of Igneous Rocks |journal=The Journal of Geology |date=September 1902 |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=555–690 |doi=10.1086/621030|bibcode=1902JG.....10..555C |s2cid=140683261 }}</ref> Cross and his coinvestigators later clarified that micas and aluminium amphiboles belonged to a separate category of ''alferric'' minerals. They then introduced the term ''mafic'' for ferromagnesian minerals of all types, in preference to the term ''femag'' coined by A. Johannsen in 1911, whose sound they disliked.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cross |first1=Whitman |last2=Iddings |first2=J. P. |last3=Pirsson |first3=L. V. |last4=Washington |first4=H. S. |title=Modifications of the "Quantitative System of Classification of Igneous Rocks" |journal=The Journal of Geology |date=September 1912 |volume=20 |issue=6 |pages=550–561 |doi=10.1086/621996|bibcode=1912JG.....20..550C |s2cid=129515388 }}</ref><ref name="Jackson1997">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/glossaryofgeolog0000unse_k9a5 |title=Glossary of geology. |date=1997 |publisher=American Geological Institute |isbn=0922152349 |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Julia A. |edition=Fourth |location=Alexandria, Virginia |chapter=mafic |url-access=registration}}</ref>