Cavansite, whose name is derived from its chemical composition, ''calcium vanadium silicate'', is a deep blue hydrous

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar t ...

vanadium

phyllosilicate Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, ) is usually consid ...

mineral, occurring as a secondary mineral in

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90 ...

ic and

andesitic Andesite () is a volcanic rock of intermediate composition. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between silica-poor basalt and silica-rich rhyolite. It is fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic in texture, and is composed predomin ...

rocks along with a variety of

zeolite Zeolites are microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ･y where is either a metal ion or H+. These p ...

minerals. Discovered in 1967 in Malheur County,

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, cavansite is a relatively rare mineral. It is polymorphic with the even rarer mineral, pentagonite. It is most frequently found in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and in the Deccan Traps, a

large igneous province A large igneous province (LIP) is an extremely large accumulation of igneous rocks, including intrusive (sills, dikes) and extrusive (lava flows, tephra deposits), arising when magma travels through the crust towards the surface. The formation ...

Uses of cavansite

Although cavansite contains vanadium, and could thus be a possible ore source for the element, it is not generally considered an ore mineral. However, because of its rich color and relative rarity, cavansite is a sought-after collector's mineral.

Associated minerals

* Members of the

apophyllite The name apophyllite refers to a specific group of phyllosilicates, a class of minerals. Originally, the group name referred to a specific mineral, but was redefined in 1978 to stand for a class of minerals of similar chemical makeup that compris ...

group * Members of the

group, particularly

stilbite Stilbite is the name of a series of tectosilicate minerals of the zeolite group. Prior to 1997, stilbite was recognized as a mineral species, but a reclassification in 1997 by the International Mineralogical Association changed it to a series na ...

* babingtonite, Ca₂ Fe₂ Si₅ O₁₄ OH *

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, Si O₂ * calcite, Ca CO₃ * pentagonite, Ca( V O) Si₄ O₁₀ · 4( H₂O)

Notes for identification

Cavansite is a distinctive mineral. It tends to form crystal aggregates, generally in the form of balls, up to a couple centimeters in size. Sometimes the balls are coarse enough to allow the individual crystals to be seen. Rarely, cavansite forms bowtie-shaped aggregates. The color of cavansite is distinctive, almost always a rich, bright blue. The color is the same as its dimorph, pentagonite, but the latter is generally much more spikey with bladed crystals. Finally, the associated minerals are useful for identification, as cavansite is frequently found sitting atop a matrix of zeolites or apophyllites.

References

Mineral galleries
* Evans, H.T. Jr., "The crystal structure of cavansite and pentagonite", American Mineralogist, Vol. 58, pg. 412-424, 1973. * Makki, M.F., "Collecting cavansite in the Wagholi quarry complex, Pune, Maharashtra, India", The Mineralogical Record, Vol. 36, No. 6, pg. 507-512, Nov-Dec 2005. * Staples, L.W., Evans, H.T. Jr., and Lindsay, J.R., "Cavansite and pentagonite, new dimorphous calcium vanadium silicate minerals from Oregon", American Mineralogist, Vol. 58, pg 405-411, 1973. http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM58/AM58_405.pdf

External links

{{Commons-inline Calcium minerals Minerals in space group 62 Orthorhombic minerals Phyllosilicates Vanadium minerals Vanadyl compounds