Hatchettite (also mountain tallow, mineral tallow, mineral adipocire, or adipocerite) is a mineral
hydrocarbon
In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
. It has been claimed to be the same as
evenkite.
[
]
Characteristics
Hatchettite occurs in the coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
measures of Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and elsewhere, occupying in some cases the interior of hollow concretions of iron-ore, but more generally the cavities of fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
shells or crevices in the rocks.
It is of yellow colour, and translucent, but darkens and becomes opaque on exposure. It has no odour, is greasy to the touch, and has a slightly glistening lustre. Its hardness is that of soft wax. The melting point is 46 to 47 °C, and the composition is C 85.55 %, H 14.45 %.[
]
See also
* Ozocerite
References
*
*
[J. E. Spangenberg and N. Meisser (2000): ""Hatchettite and Evenkite - two mineral names for the same natural crystalline paraffinic vax sotope ratio study. Paper EDB-00:118740 ''Abstracts of the 5th Isotope Workshop of European Society for Isotope Research'', pages 188-191. ]
[J. E. Spangenberg, J. C. Hunziker, N. Meisser, and U. Herlec (1999): "Compound specific isotope analysis of the organic minerals hatchettite and idrialite in geodes, coal, and mineral deposits". Chapter in ''Mineral Deposits: Processes to Processing'', pages 275-278. ]
Minerals
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