Ziesite is a

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

vanadate In chemistry, a vanadate is an anionic coordination complex of vanadium. Often vanadate refers to oxoanions of vanadium, most of which exist in its highest oxidation state of +5. The complexes and are referred to as hexacyanovanadate(III) and no ...

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. ( ...

with formula: β-Cu₂V₂O₇. It was discovered in 1980 as

monoclinic In crystallography, the monoclinic crystal system is one of the seven crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three vectors. In the monoclinic system, the crystal is described by vectors of unequal lengths, as in the orthorhombic s ...

crystals occurring as

volcanic sublimate A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

s around

fumarole A fumarole (or fumerole) is a vent in the surface of the Earth or other rocky planet from which hot volcanic gases and vapors are emitted, without any accompanying liquids or solids. Fumaroles are characteristic of the late stages of volcani ...

s in the crater of the

Izalco Volcano Izalco is an active stratovolcano on the side of the Santa Ana Volcano, which is located in western El Salvador. It is situated on the southern flank of the Santa Ana volcano. Izalco erupted almost continuously from 1770 (when it formed) to 1958 ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

. It is named after Emanuel George Zies (1883–1981), an American geochemist who studied Izalco in the 1930s. Closely related is

blossite Blossite is an anhydrous copper vanadate mineral with the formula: . Blossite was named for mineralogist F. Donald Bloss of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Natural and synthetic occurrence Blossite was first described for an ...

, also a copper vanadate with formula of α-Cu₂V₂O₇. It forms

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a r ...

crystals. Blossite was also first described for specimens from the Izalco volcano. Ziesite and blossite are polymorphs, different crystal structure for the same chemical composition and are quite similar in physical properties. Associated minerals include stoiberite, shcherbinaite, bannermanite,

fingerite Fingerite is a copper vanadate mineral with formula: β-Cu2V2O5. It was discovered as triclinic crystals occurring as volcanic sublimates around fumaroles in the crater of the Izalco Volcano, El Salvador. Associated minerals include thenardit ...

, mcbirneyite, blossite, chalcocyanite and

chalcanthite Chalcanthite (, ) is a richly colored blue-green water-soluble sulfate mineral . It is commonly found in the late-stage oxidation zones of copper deposits. Due to its ready solubility, chalcanthite is more common in arid regions. Chalcanthite i ...

References

Copper(II) minerals Vanadate minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 15 {{mineral-stub