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Sacrofanite
Sacrofanite is a rare silicate mineral that has the general formula of . Nickel, E., and Nichols, M. (1980) IMA/CNMNC List of Mineral Names. Official IMA-CNMNC List of Mineral Names, 247. It was approved as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association in 1980. Its name comes from the Sacrofano Caldera in the Monti Sabatini from which it was discovered in Latium, Italy. Structure and optical properties It has a hexagonal crystal system, meaning crystallographically it has three horizontal axes of equal length that make an angle of 120° with their positive ends, with a long vertical axis running perpendicular to them. The mineral is anisotropic, meaning the velocity of light through a mineral will vary depending on the direction that the light is going. It has a moderate relief ranging from 1.486 to 1.505. It has a birefringence of 0.019, with birefringence being the decomposition of a light ray into two different rays when light hits a mineral. Sacrofanite is uniaxial ...
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Cancrinite
Cancrinite is a complex carbonate and silicate of sodium, calcium and aluminium with the formula Na6 Ca2 water">H2O. It is classed as a member of the feldspathoid group of minerals; the alkali feldspars that are poor in silica. Yellow, orange, pink, white or even blue, it has a vitreous or pearly lustre (mineralogy), luster; a Mohs scale of mineral hardness, hardness of 5–6 and an uneven conchoidal fracture. It is unusual among the silicate minerals in that it will effervesce with hydrochloric acid due to the associated carbonate ions. Found originally in 1839 in the Ural Mountains, it is named after Georg von Cancrin, a Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...n minister of finance. References Calcium minerals Sodium minerals Aluminium minerals Car ...
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Andradite
Andradite is a mineral species of the garnet group. It is a nesosilicate, with formula Ca3Fe2Si3O12. Andradite includes three varieties: * ''Melanite'': Black in color, referred to as "titanian andradite".Melanite
Mindat.org * : Vivid green in color, one of the most valuable and rare stones in the world. * ''Topazolite'': Yellow-green in color and sometimes of high enough quality to be cut into a faceted , it is rarer than demantoid. It was first de ...
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Cancrinite Group
Cancrinite is a complex carbonate and silicate of sodium, calcium and aluminium with the formula Na6 Ca2 water">H2O. It is classed as a member of the feldspathoid group of minerals; the alkali feldspars that are poor in silica. Yellow, orange, pink, white or even blue, it has a vitreous or pearly lustre (mineralogy), luster; a Mohs scale of mineral hardness, hardness of 5–6 and an uneven conchoidal fracture. It is unusual among the silicate minerals in that it will effervesce with hydrochloric acid due to the associated carbonate ions. Found originally in 1839 in the Ural Mountains, it is named after Georg von Cancrin, a Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...n minister of finance. References Calcium minerals Sodium minerals Aluminium minerals Carbon ...
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Aluminium Minerals
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has a great affinity towards oxygen, and forms a protective layer of oxide on the surface when exposed to air. Aluminium visually resembles silver, both in its color and in its great ability to reflect light. It is soft, non-magnetic and ductile. It has one stable isotope, 27Al; this isotope is very common, making aluminium the twelfth most common element in the Universe. The radioactivity of 26Al is used in radiodating. Chemically, aluminium is a post-transition metal in the boron group; as is common for the group, aluminium forms compounds primarily in the +3 oxidation state. The aluminium cation Al3+ is small and highly charged; as such, it is polarizing, and bonds aluminium forms tend towards covalency. The strong affinity to ...
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Sodium Minerals
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 isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature, and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl). Many salts of sodium are highly water-soluble: sodium ions have been leached by the action of water from the Earth's minerals over eons, and thus sodium and chlorine are the most common dissolved elements by weight in the oceans. Sodium was first isolated by Humphry Davy in 1807 by the electrolysis of sodium hydroxide. Among many other useful sodium compounds, sodium hydroxide ( lye) is used in soap manufacture, and sodium chloride (edible salt) is a de-icing agent and a nutrient for animals including ...
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Calcium Minerals
Calcium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), 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 to its heavier homologues strontium and barium. It is the fifth most abundant element in Earth's crust, and the third most abundant metal, after iron and aluminium. The most common calcium compound on Earth is calcium carbonate, found in limestone and the fossilised remnants of early sea life; gypsum, anhydrite, fluorite, and apatite are also sources of calcium. The name derives from Latin language, Latin ''calx'' "lime (material), lime", which was obtained from heating limestone. Some calcium compounds were known to the ancients, though their chemistry was unknown until the seventeenth century. Pure calcium was isolated in 1808 via electrolysis of its oxide by Humphry Davy, who named the element. Calcium compounds are wid ...
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Hauyne
Hauyne or haüyne, also called hauynite or haüynite ( ), is a tectosilicate sulfate mineral with endmember formula . As much as 5 wt % may be present, and also and Cl. It is a feldspathoid and a member of the sodalite group. Hauyne was first described in 1807 from samples discovered in Vesuvian lavas in Monte Somma, Italy,Farndon and Parker (2009). Minerals, Rocks and Fossils of the World. Lorenz Books and was named in 1807 by Brunn-Neergard for the French crystallographer René Just Haüy (1743–1822). It is sometimes used as a gemstone. Sodalite group Formulae: *haüyne *sodalite *nosean *lazurite * tsaregorodtsevite *tugtupite * vladimirivanovite All these minerals are feldspathoids. Haüyne forms a solid solution with nosean and with sodalite. Complete solid solution exists between synthetic nosean and haüyne at 600 °C, but only limited solid solution occurs in the sodalite-nosean and sodalite-haüyne systems.Bellatreccia, Della Ventura, Piccinini, Cav ...
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Leucite
Leucite is a rock-forming mineral of the feldspathoid group, silica-undersaturated and composed of potassium and aluminium tectosilicate KAlSi2O6. Crystals have the form of cubic icositetrahedra but, as first observed by Sir David Brewster in 1821, they are not optically isotropic, and are therefore pseudo-cubic. Goniometric measurements made by Gerhard vom Rath in 1873 led him to refer the crystals to the tetragonal system. Optical investigations have since proved the crystals to be still more complex in character, and to consist of several orthorhombic or monoclinic individuals, which are optically biaxial and repeatedly twinned, giving rise to twin-lamellae and to striations on the faces. When the crystals are raised to a temperature of about 500 °C they become optically isotropic and the twin-lamellae and striations disappear, although they reappear when the crystals are cooled again. This pseudo-cubic character of leucite is very similar to that of the mineral ...
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Fassaite
Fassaite is a variety of augite with a very low iron content, . It is named after the Fassa Valley, Italy. It is thought to be a contact mineral formed at high temperature on the interface between volcanic rocks and limestone. It is also reported in meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object en ...s. References * Inosilicates Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 15 {{Silicate-mineral-stub ...
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Sanidine
Sanidine is the high temperature form of potassium feldspar with a general formula K(AlSi3O8). Sanidine is found most typically in felsic volcanic rocks such as obsidian, rhyolite and trachyte. Sanidine crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system. Orthoclase is a monoclinic polymorph stable at lower temperatures. At yet lower temperatures, microcline, a triclinic polymorph of potassium feldspar, is stable. Due to the high temperature and rapid quenching, sanidine can contain more sodium in its structure than the two polymorphs that equilibrated at lower temperatures. Sanidine and high albite constitute a solid solution series with intermediate compositions termed anorthoclase. Exsolution of an albite phase does occur; resulting cryptoperthite can best be observed in electron microprobe images. Occurrence In addition to its presence in the groundmass of felsic rocks, sanidine is a common phenocryst in rhyolites and, to a lesser extent, rhyodacites. Trachyte consists largely of ...
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Tectosilicate
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 considered a silicate mineral. Silica is found in nature as the mineral quartz, and its polymorphs. On Earth, a wide variety of silicate minerals occur in an even wider range of combinations as a result of the processes that have been forming and re-working the crust for billions of years. These processes include partial melting, crystallization, fractionation, metamorphism, weathering, and diagenesis. Living organisms also contribute to this geologic cycle. For example, a type of plankton known as diatoms construct their exoskeletons ("frustules") from silica extracted from seawater. The frustules of dead diatoms are a major constituent of deep ocean sediment, and of diatomaceous earth. General structure A silicate mineral is generally ...
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Hexagonal Crystal System
In crystallography, the hexagonal crystal family is one of the six crystal families, which includes two crystal systems (hexagonal and trigonal) and two lattice systems (hexagonal and rhombohedral). While commonly confused, the trigonal crystal system and the rhombohedral lattice system are not equivalent (see section crystal systems below). In particular, there are crystals that have trigonal symmetry but belong to the hexagonal lattice (such as α- quartz). The hexagonal crystal family consists of the 12 point groups such that at least one of their space groups has the hexagonal lattice as underlying lattice, and is the union of the hexagonal crystal system and the trigonal crystal system. There are 52 space groups associated with it, which are exactly those whose Bravais lattice is either hexagonal or rhombohedral. __TOC__ Lattice systems The hexagonal crystal family consists of two lattice systems: hexagonal and rhombohedral. Each lattice system consists of one Brav ...
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