Clinohedrite is a rare

silicate mineral 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 ...

. Its chemical composition is a

hydrous In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was understo ...

calcium-zinc silicate; CaZn(SiO₄)·H₂O. It crystallizes in the

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 ...

system and typically occurs as

veinlets A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...

and fracture coatings. It is commonly colorless, white to pale amethyst in color. It has perfect cleavage and the crystalline habit has a brilliant luster. It has a

Mohs hardness The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. The scale was introduced in 1812 by th ...

of 5.5 and a

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...

of 3.28 - 3.33.http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/clinohedrite.pdf Handbook of Mineralogyhttp://www.mindat.org/min-1075.html Mindat Under short wave

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

light it fluoresces a rich orange color. It is frequently associated with minerals such as

hardystonite Hardystonite is a rare calcium zinc silicate mineral first described from the Franklin, New Jersey, U.S. zinc deposits. It often contains lead, which was detrimental to the zinc smelting process, so it was not a useful ore mineral. Like many of t ...

(fluoresces violet blue),

esperite Esperite is a rare complex calcium lead zinc silicate (PbCa3Zn4(SiO4)4) related to beryllonite and trimerite that used to be called ''calcium larsenite''. Esperite has a white, greasy appearance in daylight and is much prized for its brilliant ...

(fluoresces bright yellow),

calcite Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on ...

(fluoresces orange-red),

franklinite Franklinite is an oxide mineral belonging to the normal spinel subgroup's iron (Fe) series, with the formula ZnFe3+2O4. As with another spinel member magnetite, both ferrous (2+) and ferric (3+) iron may be present in Franklinite samples. Di ...

(non-fluorescent) and

willemite Willemite is a zinc silicate mineral () and a minor ore of zinc. It is highly fluorescent (green) under shortwave ultraviolet light. It occurs in a variety of colors in daylight, in fibrous masses and apple-green gemmy masses. Troostite is a vari ...

(fluoresces green). Clinohedrite was found primarily at the

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

zinc mines in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, the type locality, but has also been reported from the Christmas mine,

Gila County, Arizona Gila County ( ) is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 53,272. The county seat is Globe. Gila County comprises the Payson, Arizona Micropolitan Statistical Area. Gila County contains p ...

, and the Western Quinling gold belt, Gansu Province, China. It was first described in 1898 and was named for its crystal morphology from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

''klino'' for incline, and ''hedra'' for face.

References

Calcium minerals Nesosilicates Zinc minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 9 Minerals described in 1898 {{silicate-mineral-stub