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Tincalconite is a hydrous
sodium Sodium is a chemical element with the symbol Na (from Latin ''natrium'') and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable ...
borate A borate is any of several boron oxyanions, negative ions consisting of boron and oxygen, such as orthoborate , metaborate , or tetraborate ; or any salt with such anions, such as sodium metaborate, and disodium tetraborate . The name also re ...
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2 ...
closely related to
borax Borax is a salt ( ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular for ...
, and is a secondary mineral that forms as a dehydration product of borax. Its formula is Na2 B4 O7·5 H2O or Na2 H)4.html"_;"title="hydrogen.html"_;"title="4O5(Ohydrogen">H)4">hydrogen.html"_;"title="4O5(Ohydrogen">H)43H2O. Tincalconite_typically_occurs_as_a_fine_grained_white_powder._It_crystallizes_in_the_Hexagonal_(crystal_system).html" "title="hydrogen">H)4.html" ;"title="hydrogen.html" ;"title="4O5(Ohydrogen">H)4">hydrogen.html" ;"title="4O5(Ohydrogen">H)43H2O. Tincalconite typically occurs as a fine grained white powder. It crystallizes in the Hexagonal (crystal system)">hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...
crystal system and has been found as primary euhedral di-rhombohedral, pseudo-octahedral crystals. It is also found pseudomorphically replacing borax crystals. It has a specific gravity of 1.88 and a Mohs hardness of 2. Refractive index values are nω=1.460 and nε=1.470. While most tincalconite is created by man through exposing borax to dry air, there are natural occurrences of tincalconite, as in
Searles Lake Searles Lake is an endorheic dry lake in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California. The lake in the past was also called Slate Range Lake and Borax Lake. The mining community of Trona is on i ...
,
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
where it was first described in 1878. In addition to several California and Nevada locations it is reported from Argentina, Italy, Turkey and Ukraine. The name comes from "tincal",
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
for borax, and Greek, "konis", meaning powder, for its composition and typical powdery nature.


Gallery

File:Tincalconite-unit-cell-3D-balls.png,
Ball-and-stick model In chemistry, the ball-and-stick model is a molecular model of a chemical substance which displays both the three-dimensional position of the atoms and the bonds between them. The atoms are typically represented by spheres, connected by rods ...
of the
unit cell In geometry, biology, mineralogy and solid state physics, a unit cell is a repeating unit formed by the vectors spanning the points of a lattice. Despite its suggestive name, the unit cell (unlike a unit vector, for example) does not necessaril ...
of tincalconite File:Tincalconite-byu.jpg, Tincalconite,
Boron, California Boron (formerly Amargo, Baker, Borate, and Kern) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kern County, California, United States. Boron is southwest of Red Rock Mountain at an elevation of . The population was 2,086 at the 2020 census, up from 2,025 ...


References

* Palache, C., H. Berman, and C. Frondel (1951) ''Dana’s system of Mineralogy'', (7th edition), v. II, pp. 337–339.
Mineral Data Publishing, PDF



Webmineral data



Sodium minerals Nesoborates Trigonal minerals Minerals in space group 155 {{mineral-stub et:Booraks pl:Tetraboran sodu ru:Тетраборат натрия