Bowen's reaction series

[2][3] Bowen's reaction series is able to explain why certain types of minerals tend to be found together while others are almost never associated with one another.

He repeated this process with progressively cooler temperatures and the results he obtained led him to formulate his reaction series which is still accepted today as the idealized progression of minerals produced by cooling basaltic magma that undergoes fractional crystallization.

Based upon Bowen's work, one can infer from the minerals present in a rock the relative conditions under which the material had formed.

In the discontinuous series mafic minerals such as olivine will first crystallize at a higher temperature, as magma cools.

Since the surface of the Earth is a low temperature environment compared to the zones of rock formation, the chart also reflects the relative stability of minerals, with the ones at bottom being most stable and the ones at top being quickest to weather, known as the Goldich dissolution series.