Stellerite

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Stellerite
Stellerite-denv08-15a.jpg
Stellerite as radial-spherical aggregates on a matrix from the Aurangabad district , Maharashtra, India (size: 15.9 cm × 11.8 cm × 8.3 cm)
General and classification
chemical formula
  • Ca 4 (Si 28 Al 8 ) O 72 · 28H 2 O
  • Ca [Al 2 Si 7 O 18 ] • 7H 2 O
Mineral class
(and possibly department) 		Silicates and Germanates - framework silicates (tectosilicates)
System no. to Strunz
and to Dana 		9.GE.15 ( 8th edition : VIII / F.12)
77.01.04.04
Crystallographic Data
Crystal system orthorhombic
Crystal class ; symbol orthorhombic-dipyramidal; 2 / m  2 / m  2 / m
Space group Fmmm (No. 69)Template: room group / 69
Lattice parameters a  = 13.60  Å ; b  = 18.22 Å; c  = 17.84 Å
Formula units Z  = 8
Frequent crystal faces {100}, {010}, {001}, {111}
Physical Properties
Mohs hardness 3.5 to 4
Density (g / cm 3 ) measured: 2.13 (1); calculated: 2.12
Cleavage completely after {001}
colour colorless, white, pale to salmon pink, yellow to orange, green, brown
Line color White
transparency transparent to translucent
shine Glass gloss, pearlescent
Crystal optics
Refractive indices n α  = 1.485
n β  = 1.486 to 1.496
n γ  = 1.498
Birefringence δ = 0.013
Optical character biaxial negative
Axis angle 2V = 47 (2) ° (measured); 39 (8) ° (calculated)

Stellerite is a rather rare mineral from the mineral class of "silicates and germanates" with the chemical composition Ca 4 (Si 28 Al 8 ) O 72 · 28H 2 O or Ca [Al 2 Si 7 O 18 ] · 7H 2 O in the crystalline structural formula notation according to Strunz . From a chemical point of view, the mineral is thus a water-containing calcium - aluminosilicate and the calcium analogue of barrerite .

Stellerite crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system and develops tabular crystals , which often come together in the form of fan-shaped to sheaf-shaped or radial to spherical mineral aggregates up to 14 cm in diameter. In its pure form, Stellerite is colorless and transparent with a glass-like sheen on the surfaces. However, due to multiple refraction due to lattice construction defects or polycrystalline training, it can also be translucent white and, due to foreign admixtures, take on a pale to salmon pink, yellow to orange, green or brown color.

Etymology and history

Stellerite was discovered at the north-western end of the island of Medny (German: Copper Island ), which belongs to the commanders' islands, in the Russian federal district of the Far East . It was first described in 1909 by the Polish mineralogist Josef Morozewicz (1865–1941), who named the mineral after the German doctor, ethnologist and naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller .

In 1967, Richard C. Erd, G. Donald Eberlein and Adolf Pabst  confirmed stellerite as an independent mineral and orthorhombic end member of the mixed crystal series Stilbit (monoclinic) - Stellerite after a renewed examination of the type material , after it had meanwhile been regarded as a variety of Stilbit was.

The type material (holotype) of the mineral is in the Natural History Museum in London, England under the collection no. 1934,650 kept.

classification

Already in the outdated 8th edition of the mineral classification according to Strunz , the stellerite belonged to the mineral class of "silicates and germanates" and there to the department of "tectosilicates", where together with brewsterite , epistilbit , heulandite , clinoptilolite ( soda-heulandite ) and Stilbit the "Heulandit-Stilbit-Gruppe" with the system no. VIII / F.12 within the zeolite family .

In the last revised and updated Lapis mineral directory by Stefan Weiß in 2018 , which, out of consideration for private collectors and institutional collections, is still based on this classic system of Karl Hugo Strunz , the mineral was given the system and mineral number. VIII / J.23-50 . In the "Lapis system", this also corresponds to the "framework silicates" section, where stellerite together with barrerite , brewsterite-Sr , brewsterite-ba , epistilbit , goosecreekite , heulandite-Na , heulandite-K , heulandite-Ca , heulandite-Sr , Heulandite-Ba , clinoptilolite-Na , clinoptilolite-K , clinoptilolite-Ca , stilbite-Na and stilbite-Ca forms an independent but unnamed subgroup within the group of "leaf zeolites" ranging from J.23 to J.25.

The 9th edition of Strunz's mineral systematics, which has been in effect since 2001 and was updated by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) until 2009, classifies stellerite in the more finely subdivided section of “tectosilicates with zeolitic H 2 O; Family of zeolites ”. This is also further subdivided according to the crystal structure, so that the mineral can be found according to its composition in the sub-section "Tables with 4-4-1-1 structural units", where it only belongs to the unnamed group 9.GE.15 together with barrerite forms.

The systematics of minerals according to Dana , which is mainly used in the English-speaking world , assigns stellerite to the class of "silicates and germanates" and there in the department of "structural silicates: zeolite group". Here it is in the group " Heulandite and allied species " with the system no. 77.01.04 to be found in the subsection "Real Zeolites".

Crystal structure

Stellerite crystallizes orthorhombically in the space group Fmmm (space group no. 69) with the lattice parameters a  = 13.60  Å ; b  = 18.22 Å and c  = 17.84 Å and 8 formula units per unit cell . Template: room group / 69

Education and Locations

Sheaf-shaped, cross-shaped twinned stellerite crystals from the Jalgaon district, Maharashtra, India
Size: 6.8 cm × 6.6 cm × 6.5 cm
Yellow, spherical stellerite crystal aggregates from the Sokolovskoe iron mine near Rudny , Qostanai region, Kazakhstan (field of view 3 cm)
Radial stellerite (white) with erythrin (violet) from the Sara Alicia pit near San Bernardo , Municipio Álamos , Sonora , Mexico
Overall size : 19.0 cm × 9.8 cm × 8.0 cm

Stellerite forms hydrothermally as a duct filling or in geodes in basic volcanic rocks such as basalt or diabase step , but is also found in granodiorites and in metamorphic rocks such as mica schist , skarn or gneiss . As Begleitminerale among others occur analcime and other zeolites and Apophyllit , calcite , solid copper , prehnite , tridymite and occasionally hematite on.

As a rather rare mineral formation, stellerite can sometimes be abundant at various sites, but overall it is not very common. Around 200 sites have been documented worldwide so far.

Except at its type locality , the copper island Medny Island in the Far Eastern Federal District, the mineral in Russia was still in the iron mine Malyi Kuibas in Magnitogorsk in the Chelyabinsk region and in the asbestos - deposit Bazhenovsk with serpentinierten Ultra Basiten and Kazennitsa -speed of Pegmatitfeldes Alabashka at Yuzhakovo in the Sverdlovsk Oblast in the Ural Federal District , in the polymetallic deposit near Klitschka (also Klichka or Klicka ) and in the pegmatite field Malkhan (also Malchan or Malechansk ) near Krasnyi Chikoy in the Chita Oblast (Transbaikalia) in the Siberian Federal District. It was also found in the Khyr Pilyaki Mountains near Goluboi Zaliv on the Crimean peninsula .

In Germany, stellerite could be found in the Kusserbruch ( granodiorite with pegmatite ) near Stützersdorf in the municipality of Tittling , in the granite quarries Ernst & Kubischek near Grub (municipality Rinchnach ), in the Zufurt quarry (Zufuhrt) near Tröstau and in the Oberbaumühle quarries ( amphibolite ) near Windischeschenbach and Huber (serpentine) near Winklarn in Bavaria, in the Caspar quarry on Ettringer Bellerberg in the Rhineland-Palatinate Vulkaneifel as well as in several quarries in the communities Demitz-Thumitz and Steinigtwolmsdorf , near Pließkowitz , in the yellow birch pit near Schwarzenberg / Erzgeb . , in the Thadenbruch near Königshain and the Lamprophyr -Brüchen near Oberottendorf in Saxony.

In Austria, Stellerit has so far occurred in Carinthia (Brandrücke, Fraßgraben, Magdalensberg , Riekengraben), Lower Austria ( Persenbeug-Gottsdorf , Allentsteig , Kottes-Purk ), Salzburg (Kendlbrucker Graben, Lohninger Bruch, Naßfelder Tal ), Styria (Humpelgraben, Marhof , Pechgraben , Schöttl-Gladjoch) and Vorarlberg ( Gargellental , Gortipohl , Schruns , Verwall ).

In Switzerland, the mineral is known from the gneiss quarries near Arvigo in the canton of Graubünden , a quarry in the Valle di Vergeletto with compact biotite gneiss in the canton of Ticino and from the Wannigletscher - Scherbadung area in the Kriegalptal (Chriegalptal), a side valley of the Binntal , from rock samples from the Piece glacier near Arolla , the copper-nickel ore mine de Gollyre near Ayer (Val d'Anniviers) and from the 2598 m high Le Catogne near Sembrancher in the canton of Valais.

Known by exceptional Stelleritfunden are two broad olivine - basalt flows with an area of approximately 450 square kilometers near Garrawilla in Pottinger County of New South Wales in Australia, where crystals of up to 8 cm size came to light.

Other locations are among others in Brazil, Canada, Kazakhstan, China, France, India, Iceland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Namibia, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, South Africa, Hungary, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland, Scotland) and in some federal states of the USA.

See also

literature

  • Josef Morozewicz : About stellerite, a new zeolite mineral . In: Bulletin International de l'Académie des Sciences de Cracovie (German: Gazette of the Academy of Sciences in Krakow ) . 1909, p. 344–359 ( rruff.info [PDF; 836 kB ; accessed on November 28, 2019]).
  • Michael Fleischer : New mineral names . In: American Mineralogist . tape 53 , 1968, pp. 507–511 (English, rruff.info [PDF; 354 kB ; accessed on December 2, 2019]).
  • Ermanno Galli, Alberto Alberti: The crystal structure of stellerite . In: Bulletin de la Société Française de Minéralogie et de Cristallographie . tape 98 , 1975, pp. 11–18 (English, rruff.info [PDF; 487 kB ; accessed on December 2, 2019]).
  • DS Coombs, Alberto Alberti, Thomas Armbruster, G. Artioli, C. Colella, Ermanno Galli, JD Grice, F. Liebau, JA Mandarino, H. Minato, Ernest H. Nickel, E. Passengeria, DR Peacor, S. Quartieri, R. Rinaldi, M. Ross, RA Sheppard, E. Tillmanns, G. Vezzalini: Recommended nomenclature for zeolite minerals: report of the Subcommittee on Zeolites of the International Mineralogical Association, Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names . In: The Canadian Mineralogist . tape 35 , 1997, pp. 1571–1606 (English, rruff.info [PDF; 3.5 MB ; accessed on December 2, 2019]).

Web links

Commons : Stellerite  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Malcolm Back, William D. Birch, Michel Blondieau and others: The New IMA List of Minerals - A Work in Progress - Updated: September 2019. (PDF 2672 kB) In: cnmnc.main.jp. IMA / CNMNC, Marco Pasero, September 2019, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Hugo Strunz , Ernest H. Nickel : Strunz Mineralogical Tables. Chemical-structural Mineral Classification System . 9th edition. E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagbuchhandlung (Nägele and Obermiller), Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-510-65188-X , p.  708 (English).
  3. ↑ a b c d e Stellerite . In: John W. Anthony, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh, Monte C. Nichols (Eds.): Handbook of Mineralogy, Mineralogical Society of America . 2001 (English, handbookofmineralogy.org [PDF; 79  kB ; accessed on December 2, 2019]).
  4. ↑ a b Stefan Weiß: The large Lapis mineral directory. All minerals from A - Z and their properties. Status 03/2018 . 7th, completely revised and supplemented edition. Weise, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-921656-83-9 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f positionerite . In: mindat.org. Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  6. ↑ David Barthelmy: Stellerite Mineral Data. In: webmineral.com. Accessed December 2, 2019 .
  7. ^ A b Richard V. Gaines, H. Catherine W. Skinner, Eugene E. Foord, Brian Mason , Abraham Rosenzweig: Dana's New Mineralogy . 8th edition. John Wiley & Sons, New York et al. 1997, ISBN 0-471-19310-0 , pp. 1675-1676 .
  8. ↑ Richard C. Erd, G. Donald Eberlein, Adolf Pabst : Stellerite: A valid orthorhombic Endmember of a continuous Series with monoclinic Stilbite . In: Geological Society of America (Ed.): Abstracts of papers submitted for seven meetings with which the Society was associated . tape 115 , 1967, p. 58–59 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed December 2, 2019]).
  9. ↑ Catalog of Type Mineral Specimens - S. (PDF 143 kB) In: docs.wixstatic.com. Commission on Museums (IMA), December 12, 2018, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Ernest H. Nickel, Monte C. Nichols: IMA / CNMNC List of Minerals 2009. (PDF 1703 kB) In: cnmnc.main.jp. IMA / CNMNC, January 2009, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  11. ^ Igor V. Pekov: Minerals first discovered on the territory of the former Soviet Union . 1st edition. Ocean Pictures, Moscow 1998, ISBN 5-900395-16-2 , pp. 194, 315 .
  12. ↑ Localities for Stellerite. In: mindat.org. Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Stellerite picture gallery from the Garrawilla Station site, Pottinger County, New South Wales, Australia. In: mindat.org. Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, accessed December 2, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Find location list for stellerite in the Mineralienatlas and Mindat , accessed on December 2, 2019.