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Amethyst Galleries' Mineral Gallery Category: Hobbies and Crafts > Amethysts Date & country: 23/09/2019, US Words: 192

Ilvaite
(Calcium Iron Silicate Hydroxide) Ilvaite is not a common mineral in rock shops. Its crystals are usually not all that attractive, but some specimens are real standouts with well-formed crystals with a shiny black color and an opaque submetallic luster. Its diamond-shaped crystals with wedge-like terminations can form very inter...

Inesite
(Hydrated Calcium Manganese Silicate Hydroxide) Inesite is not a common mineral in rock shops and in mineral displays. However it can form attractive pink or rose colored specimens that are sought after by mineral collectors. The commonly seen prismatic crystals have a slanted or `chisel-shaped` termination. At first glance the ...

Iron-Nickel
(Fe-Ni) Native Iron is quite often a misnomer as natural iron is not necessarily `native` to Earth since it rarely occurs on the Earth's surface by terrestrial processes. It is mostly found in the form of meteorites that have impacted the Earth's surface. A few rare terrestrial gabbros and sulfide deposits do contain el...

Jarosite
(Potassium Iron Sulfate Hydroxide) Jarosite is not a common mineral. It is closely related to the mineral natrojarosite . Jarosite is isostructural with natrojarosite which means that they have the same crystal structure but different chemistries. In this case, jarosite contains potassium instead of natrojarosite's sodium (nat...

Jadeite
(Sodium Aluminum Iron Silicate) Jadeite is one of the two minerals called jade . The other jade mineral is nephrite , which is a variety of actinolite. Jade has been used for eons in China and Central America as an ornamental and religious stone of deep significance. The nephrite jade was used mostly in China, although both ...

Kernite
(Hydrated Sodium Borate Hydroxide) Kernite, like other borates, is a structurally complex mineral. The basic structure of kernite contains chains of interlocking BO 3 (OH) tetrahedrons. The chains' basic unit has a formula of B 4 O 6 (OH) 2 and a charge of negative two (-2). Connected to the chains are triangular BO 3 groups w...

Kinoite
(Hydrated Calcium Copper Silicate) Kinoite is an attractive copper mineral. Its general light blue color is significantly different from other dark blue copper minerals such as azurite , linarite , papagoite , liroconite , connellite and others. In aggregate and encrusting specimens of kinoite the blue color is rather palish ...

Kulanite
(Barium Iron Manganese Magnesium Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide) Kulandite is a very rare barium phosphate mineral. It is one of the rare minerals that are making their way out of the Yukon Territory and into the mineral market.

Kyanite
(Aluminum Silicate) Kyanite is a polymorph with two other minerals: andalusite and sillimanite . A polymorph is a mineral that shares the same chemistry but a different crystal structure with another, or other, minerals. Since the three minerals form under different conditions of temperature and pressure, they are diagnosti...

Lazulite
(Magnesium Iron Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide) Lazulite is a relatively rare mineral that gets easily confused with other, more well known, minerals. Not only does it sound like the silicate mineral lazurite , it looks like it too! Well, at least it has very similar color to lazulite as well as the carbonate, azurite . The...

Laueite
(Hydrated Manganese Iron Phosphate Hydroxide) Laueite is another rare phosphate mineral from the famous Palermo Mine in New Hampshire. The minerals of the Palermo Mine are the results of a phosphate rich pegmatitic intrusion that has undergone extensive alteration. Dozens of unusual, rare and attractive primary and secondary (t...

Leifite
(Hydrated Sodium Beryllium Aluminum Silicate Hydroxide Fluoride) Leifite is a rather rare and obscure beryllium silicate mineral. It forms in rare rocks known as agpaites which are igneous rocks of unusual concentrations. They are characterized by high concentrations of alkali metals especially sodium and low concentrations of...

Leucite
(Potassium Aluminum Silicate) Leucite is a popular and interesting mineral. Its name comes from the greek word for `white` in allusion to its typical color. At high temperatures, leucite is isometric and will form the isometric trapezohedron crystal form. Interestingly, as leucite cools, the isometric structure becomes unstable...

Limestone
Limestone is a very common sedimentary rock of biochemical origin. It is composed mostly of the mineral calcite . Sometimes it is almost pure calcite, but most limestones are filled with lots of other minerals and sand and they are called dirty limestones. The calcite is derived mostly from the remains of organisms such as clams, brachio...

Linarite
(Lead Copper Sulfate Hydroxide) Linarite is colored a bright azure blue color. This beautiful and somewhat rare mineral is usually found as crusts of small crystals. Even with the small crystals, the color is always intense. Azurite is a mineral that can be easily confused with linarite. However, linarite does not react at al...

Limonite
(Hydrated Iron Oxide) Limonite is not a true mineral but a mixture of similar hydrated iron oxide minerals. Most of limonite is made up of Goethite . Massive Goethite and Limonite can be indistinguishable. Limonite forms mostly in or near oxidized iron and other metal ore deposits, and as sedimentary beds. Limonite has been kn...

Massicot
(Lead Oxide) Massicot, which has been known by the chemically descriptive term of ` lead monoxide `, is an oxidation product of other lead minerals. It forms under oxidizing conditions of lead ore bodies and its presence is very indicative of the degree of oxidation. Something of interest to petrologists (rock...

Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock resulting from the heating of limestone or dolostone . The heating may be regional due to the subduction of a limestone or may be the result of contact metamorphism where a magma intrudes into a limestone, resulting in partial melting.

Mesolite
(Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminum Silicate) Mesolite is a popular zeolite mineral for mineral collectors and zeolite collectors in particular. Its radiating sprays of ice-clear acicular crystals are a hallmark of this mineral. Often associated with minerals such as the green or clear apophyllite , the pink and pearly heuland...

Mercury
(Hg) Mercury is unique, as it is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature, having a melting point of -40 C, and a boiling point of 357 C. This silvery liquid metal is very dense, yet has a high surface tension that causes is to form tiny little perfect spheres in the pores of the rocks it is found in. Many mineralogical...

Metamorphic Rocks
Metamorphic rocks are formed when other rocks (generally sedimentary , but potentially igneous or even older metamorphic rocks) are subjected to heat and pressure. This process changes the character of the initial rocks and minerals in distinctive ways. Extreme pressures compact the original rocks, often flattening crystals into distorted s...

Meteorites
A meteorite is a rock that falls to the Earth, including particles like fine dust. The source material may be any solid, including comets , asteroids , meteoroids , fragments of the above, and even stardust . A meteor is a shooting star - the visible glow that shows the path of the meteorite. So, in space, the obje...

Mimetite
(Lead Chloroarsenate) Mimetite shares the same structure with apatite and occasionally crystals of the two will have similar shapes. Mimetite also forms a chemical series with two other minerals; Pyromorphite (Pb 5 (PO 4 ) 3 Cl) and Vanadinite (Pb 5 (VO 4 ) 3 Cl). This series is a little different than most chemical ser...

Milarite
(Hydrated Potassium Calcium Aluminum Beryllium Silicate) Milarite is a fairly rare mineral and yet it is one of the two minerals that gives its name to a somewhat large group of silicates, namely the Milarite - Osumilite Group . The group is composed of similar cyclosilicate minerals that are all very rare and very obscure ...

Minium
(Lead Oxide) Minium, which has been known as ` red lead `, is an oxidation product of other lead minerals. It forms in extreme oxidizing conditions of lead ore bodies and its presence is very indicative of the degree of oxidation. Something of interest to petrologists (rock scientists). It is probably more com...

Mixite
(Hydrated Bismuth Copper Arsenate Hydroxide) Mixite is one of just a handfull of bismuth minerals and one of even fewer bismuth arsenates. Other bismuth arsenates include walpurgite and atelestite , to name a couple. Mixite is probably the best known of these, but is still a rare mineral by most considerations. It forms in ...

Monazite
(Cerium Lanthanum Thorium Neodymium Yttrium Phosphate) Monazite is actually three different minerals technically, but because of a lack of great differences between them they are referred to as one mineral, monazite. The three monazites have differences in the percentages of their chemical makeup and these differences are re...

Native Lead
(Pb) Lead is extremely rare as a mineral, though the element itself somewhat common. The element lead is found in the Earth's crust in concentration of about 13 parts per billion. Not exactly the most common element, however as a very important metal it is fortunate that lead often concentrates itself in ore bodies of galena , ...

Native Gold
(Au) Gold is a pleasure to own and possess, as many people have discovered throughout the ages and around the world. Gold is a very stubborn element when it comes to reacting to or combining with other elements. Keeping this in mind helps to explain many things about gold. There are very few true gold ores, besides native g...

Native Cobalt
(Co) Cobalt has yet to be found in nature, but is being grown in labratories and these cobalt specimens are starting to appear in rock shops. Since it has never been found in nature it is technically not a mineral although lab grown specimens can look like a natural stone. The element cobalt has many industrial uses especially ...

Native Selenium
(Se) Selenium is a very rare mineral. It is scarce wherever it is found and it is not found too often. The color is a distinctive red-gray with a metallic luster. This is quite different from its closest related element, sulfur , which is vitreous and yellow. It is more similar in color to native tellurium which follows sel...

Native Platinum
(Pt) Native platinum is an exotic mineral specimen and an expensive metal. Unfortunately, well formed crystals of platinum are very rare and the common habit of platinum is nuggets and grains. Pure platinum is unknown of in nature as it usually is alloyed with other metals such as iron, copper, gold, nickel, iridium, pallad...

Native Silicon
(Si) Silicon is rarely found in nature in its uncombined form. In fact it is amazing how rare native silicon is with 25.7% of the Earth's crust being silicon. Silicon, binds strongly with oxygen and is nearly always found as silicon dioxide, SiO₂ ( quartz ), or as a silicate ( SiO4&l...

Native Sulfur
(S) Sulfur (spelled sulphur in some countries) can make a very beautiful mineral specimen, and fine quality examples are much sought after. The unmistakable deep yellow color is not matched by any other mineral and the nicely shaped crystal forms of sulfur add to its attractiveness. Many people don't like the smell of sulfur, wh...

Native Silver
(Ag) Silver has been mined for eons and has always been popular in jewelry and for coinage. Only in the past hundred years however, has the demand for silver been so great. The reason for this demand is the use of silver in the photography industry, which takes advantage of silver's reactivity to light. Native Silver i...

Native Tin
(Sn) Native tin (the latin word for tin is stannum and gives tin its chemical symbol Sn ) is a rare mineral. It is so rare that it in no way can it be thought of as an ore of tin. Tin ore minerals include the oxide minerals cassiterite and rutile and a few sufides such as franckeite , cylindrite...

Native Titanium
(Ti) Native titanium rarely occurs naturally in its elemental form, even though there are only six elements in the entire earth that are more abundant. It has been found in extremely high pressure metamorphic rocks and then only as inclusions . Titanium for industrial purposes is extracted primarily from rutile , ilmenite an...

Native Zinc
(Zn) Native zinc is a rare mineral. Native zinc has been found in several locations but is never found in any abundance. It would be wrong to consider it an ore of zinc. First of all, an ore should be less valuable than its constituent metal. And since zinc is so rare in its native form, this is not true. Secondly, an ore needs ...

Native Chromium
(Cr) Chromium rarely occurs naturally in its elemental form and has never been used as an ore of itself. However some native uncombined chromium has been discovered and therefore chromium is recognized as a mineral. The first specimens are attributed to the type locality in Sichuan, China, but the Udachnaya (Lucky) Mine in Russ...

Native Aluminum
(Al) Native aluminum rarely occurs naturally in its elemental form, even though only oxygen and silicon are more abundant in the earth's crust. It has been found in volcanic muds and as tiny grains in highly unusual environments along with other elemental metals. Aluminum is known as aluminium outside of the United States. Produ...

Nealite
(Lead Iron Arsenate Chloride) Nealite is a very rare mineral. It was named for an American mineral collector, Neal Yedlin. Nealite is known from one locality, its type locality of Lavrio (formerly Lavrion and Laurium), Greece. Other rare minerals from this locality include paralaurionite...

Niter
(Potassium Nitrate) Niter is one of the few nitrate minerals that is available on the mineral markets. Nitrates are not all that commonly found due to their general ease in dissolving in water. In fact some solid nitrate crystals will even become liquid by removing water from the moisture in the air, a process called de...

Nickel
(Ni) Native Nickel is extremely rare in nature, as it is almost always alloyed with iron . Iron meteorites , for example, are typically 6% to 20% nickel. About 30% of the nickel mined on Earth comes from the Sudbury Astrobleme, a large impact crater in southern Canada (the city of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada lies along the sout...

Obsidian
(Volcanic Silica Glass) Obsidian is the result of volcanic lava coming in contact with water. Often the lava pours into a lake or ocean and is cooled quickly. This process produces a glassy texture in the resulting rock. Iron and magnesium give the obsidian a dark green to black color. Obsidian has been used by ancient people as...

Okenite
(Hydrated Calcium Silicate Hydroxide) Okenite is an unusual mineral. It frequently forms `cottonball` clusters where the crystals are so thin they look like tiny fibers. The clusters are composed of straight, radiating, thread thin, crystals. These clusters can make for very attractive specimens and often accompany many fine ...

Olivine
(Magnesium Iron Silicate) Olivine is actually a name for a series between two end members, fayalite and forsterite . Fayalite is the iron rich member with a pure formula of Fe₂SiO₄ . Forsterite is the magnesium rich member with a pure formula of Mg₂Si...

Opal
(Hydrated Silica Glass) Opal has been a popular gem for many centuries and has a very interesting structure. Opal is considered a mineraloid because this structure is not truly crystalline. The chemistry of Opal is primarily SiO₂ and varying amounts of water. The amount of water varies from 5% to 1...

Orpiment
(Arsenic Sulfide) Orpiment is a rare mineral that usually forms with realgar. In fact the two minerals are almost always together. Crystals of orpiment are extremely rare as it usually forms masses and crusts. The masses are sometimes transparent to a degree and have a gemmy quality to them. The yellow color is special to orpime...

Otavite
(Cadmium Carbonate) Otavite is a rare mineral from the famous mines of Tsumeb , Otavi (hence the name), Namibia. It is one of only a few cadmium minerals as cadmium is usually a trace element in other minerals. Other cadmium minerals include: Native elemental cadmium ; the oxide mineral monteponite ; the sulfide min...

Parisite
(Calcium Cerium Lanthanum Neodymium Carbonate Fluoride) Parisite, which is named for the owner of the mine (J.J. Paris) at which parisite was discovered, is one of a few rare earth carbonate minerals . Some of the other more common rare earth carbonates are ancylite , carbocernaite , tengerite , lanthanite , synchysite , ewa...

Pharmacosiderite
(Hydrated Potassium Iron Arsenate Hydroxide) Pharmacosiderite is a rare secondary arsenate mineral. It typically forms in the oxidation zones of ore deposits. Pharmacosiderite forms from the alteration of arsenopyrite , tennantite and other primary arsenic minerals, and to a much rarer extent, it forms directly from precipit...

Primordial Rocks
Primordial rocks are those that initially formed in outer space as the solar nebula collapsed to form the Sun (and ultimately the planets). These objects coalesced to become comets, asteroids, meteoroids, and ultimately the planets. Their characteristics vary according to where they formed, how large they became (which affects subsequent processi...

Prehnite
(Calcium Aluminum Silicate Hydroxide) Prehnite was named after its discoverer; Colonel Hendrik von Prehn and is an attractive collection mineral that is occassionally used for ornamental stone purposes. Its color is usually a pleasant green and is at times quite unique to prehnite. Typical prehnite forms rather thick crusts with...

Pyrope
(Magnesium Aluminum Silicate) Pyrope is the only garnet that is always a shade of red. Although less common than most other garnets, pyrope is a common gemstone. Pyrope is the only garnet whose most common source is igneous rather than metamorphic. Most pyrope comes from ultramafic igneous rocks that contain olivine and...

Pyrite
(Iron Sulfide) Pyrite is the classic `Fool's Gold`. There are other shiny brassy yellow minerals, but pyrite is by far the most common and the most often mistaken for gold . Whether it is the golden look or something else, pyrite is a favorite among rock collectors. It can have a beautiful luster and interesting crystals. It i...

Quartz
(Silicon Dioxide) < Quartz is the most common mineral on the face of the Earth. It is found in nearly every geological environment and is at least a component of almost every rock type. It frequently is the primary mineral, >98%. It is also the most varied in terms of varieties, colors and forms. This variety comes about becaus...

Raite
(Hydrated Sodium Manganese Silicate Hydroxide) Raite is a rare and beautiful mineral. It was named in 1973 to honor the international scientific expedition of the ship ` Ra II ` which was built of papyrus. The ship was captained by Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian explorer and scientist who was determined to prove ...

Realgar
(Arsenic Sulfide) Realgar is an oddball among the sulfides. It is one of only a few sulfides that are not metallic or opaque or blandly colored. Its structure is analogous to that of sulfur and resembles sulfur in most respects except for color (the name `ruby sulfur` has been applied to realgar). Sulfur ha...

Rheniite
(Rhenium Sulfide) Rheniite is a very rare and a very new mineral on the mineral market. It is so new that it is not yet listed in mineral indexes. It is found at the Kudriary Volcano, Iturup Island, Russia and is the only known rhenium mineral. Rhenium has been found as a trace element in columbite , molybdenite , gadolinite ...

Roselite
(Hydrated Calcium Cobalt Magnesium Arsenate) Roselite is a beautifully colored mineral and varies from rose-red to pink. It would be a misguided assumption that its name came from its color. In fact it is named for a Germany eighteenth century mineralogist, Gustav Rose. The color of roselite comes from the same coloring agent o...

Rosasite
(Copper Zinc Carbonate Hydroxide) Rosasite forms in the oxidation zones of zinc-copper deposits. It typically is found as crusts and botryoidal masses or nodules. Crystals are fibrous and found in tufted aggregates. The color is an attractive bluish green. Rosasite is associated with red limonite and other such colorful minerals...

Ruby
(variety of Corundum) Ruby is the red variety of corundum, the second hardest natural mineral known to antiquity. The non-red variety of corundum is Sapphire . Sapphires are well known among the general public as being blue, but can be nearly any color. The red color in ruby is caused by trace amounts of the element chrom...

Rutile
(Titanium Oxide) Rutile is an interesting, varied and important mineral. Rutile is a major ore of titanium, a metal used for high tech alloys because of its light weight, high strength and resistance to corrosion. Rutile is also unwittingly of major importance to the gemstone markets. It also forms its own interesting and beauti...

Sandstone
Sandstone is a very common sedimentary rock and perhaps the best known sedimentary rock. It is formed in many environments. Just about anywhere there is water, whether frozen or not, in a river or ocean, there is a chance to form sandstone. Even where there is no water as in a desert, there is sandstone formation under foot.

Sapphire
(variety of Corundum) Sapphire is the non-red variety of corundum, the second hardest natural mineral known to mankind. The red variety of corundum is Ruby - all other colors are called sapphire, even pink. Sapphires are well known among the general public as being blue, but can be nearly any color, even colorless. White (o...

Sanidine
(Potasium Aluminum Silicate) Sanidine is a polymorph of other minerals that share the same chemistry but have different crystal structures. If positive identification between these minerals can not be made by field methods then the specimen may simply be refered to as a potassium feldspar or K-spar. Plagioclase feldspars lack p...

Schorl
(complex Sodium Iron Boro-Aluminum Silicate) Schorl is the most common mineral in the Tourmaline Group . Some other members of the Tourmaline Group are elbaite , uvite , buergerite and dravite . All tourmalines form similar crystals because they are isostructural, meaning that they share the same internal crystalline stru...

Siderite
(Iron Carbonate) Siderite is named for the Greek word for iron, sideros. The word siderite is used in a number of rarer minerals and except in the fact that they all contain iron, they are otherwise unrelated to siderite. They include: Alumopharmacosiderite , arseniosiderite , barium-alumopharmacosiderite , b...

Sodalite
(Sodium Aluminum Silicate Chloride) Sodalite is a scarce mineral that can be rock forming. Sodalite is named in reference to its sodium content. It is used for carvings and some jewelry pieces. Its light to dark pure blue color is well known in the semi-precious stone trade. Sodalite is a member of the feldspathoid group of min...

Sphene
(Calcium Titanium Silicate) Sphene is named from the greek word for wedge, because of its typical wedge shaped crystal habit. It is also alternatively called titanite for its titanium content. Spene can be cut as gems although it is considered a rarity on the gem market. It brings to the table a fire greater than diamond and uni...

Spinel
(Magnesium Aluminum Oxide) Spinel is a very attractive and historically important gemstone mineral. Its typical red color, although pinker, rivals the color of ruby . In fact, many rubies of notable fame belonging to crown jewel collections were found to actually be spinels. Perhaps the greatest mistake is the Black Pr...

Stibnite
(Antimony Sulfide) Stibnite is a classic mineral species with fine crystal clusters and long curved crystals being the pride of many collectors. The slender curved metallic blades of stibnite can resemble arabian swords. The curving of the long bladed crystals is due to twinning where one twin plane bends the crystal one directi...

Stilbite
(Hydrated Sodium Calcium Aluminum Silicate) Stilbite is a common and perhaps the most popular zeolite mineral for collectors. Stilbite crystals can aggregate together to form a structure resembling wheat sheafs. This hourglass structure looks like several crystals stacked parallel to each other with the tops and bottoms of this ...

Sugilite
(Potassium Sodium Lithium Iron Manganese Aluminum Silicate) Sugilite is a somewhat obscure mineral named for the Japanese geologist who discovered the first specimens in 1944, Ken-ichi Sugi. It is becoming very popular in the jewelry trade. It does not form well shaped crystals but is usually massive. This is OK, as it is used m...

Sylvite
(Potassium Chloride) Sylvite, also called sylvine, is a major source of potassium or potash used in fertilizer products. So great is the need for potassium that sylvite deposits are considered very valuable economically. As a mineral specimen sylvite does not get much attention. The crystals can be well formed and are often redd...

Talc
(Magnesium Silicate Hydroxide) Talc is an important industrial mineral. Its resistance to heat, electricity and acids make it an ideal surface for lab counter tops and electrical switchboards. It is also an important filler material for paints, rubber and insecticides. Even with all these uses, most people only know talc as the ...

Tektites
(Meteoric Silica Glass) Chemistry: Varies but is mostly silica glass with impurities of magnesium, iron and other elements. Class: Mineraloids Uses: As a gemstone and as collection specimens ·The Physical Properties of Tektities. Tektite Specimens Tektites are still poorly understood. They are irregularly- and at t...

Thorite
(Thorium Uranium Silicate) Thorite is the most common thorium mineral. Thorium is a highly radioactive element and could be used as a replacement for uranium in nuclear power generation. It is estimated to be three times as common as uranium and all the thorium in the Earth's crust could have more potential energy than both ...

Topaz
(Aluminum Silicate Fluoride Hydroxide) Topaz is a common gemstone that has been used for centuries in jewelry. Its golden brown to yellow color is classic but is confused with the less valuable citrine, which issometimes sold under the name topaz. The blue topaz that is often confused with aquamarine is rarely natural...

Trona
(Hydrated Sodium Bicarbonate Carbonate) Trona is the type mineral so-to-speak for several sodium carbonates that form in non-marine evaporite deposits. Other sodium carbonates include gaylussite , natron , pirssonite , northupite , nahcolite and thermonatrite . Trona is probably the most common and well known of these mine...

Ulexite
(Hydrated Sodium Calcium Borate Hydroxide) Ulexite, like other borates, is a structurally complex mineral. The basic structure of ulexite contains chains of sodium, water and hydroxide octahedrons linked in endless chains. The chains are linked together by calcium, water, hydroxide and oxygen polyhedra and massive boron units. T...

Unconsolidated Sediments
(Loose Deposits) Other Places Minerals Are Found Weathering processes break large rocks into smaller ones, in processes that can work on surfaces (immediately resulting in fine particles) such as sandblasting, or in processes that gradually turn large rocks into smaller and smaller ones, such as the freezing and thawing of w...

Uvite
(Calcium Iron Magnesium Aluminum Boro-silicate Hydroxide) Uvite was considered to be a very rare member of the Tourmaline Group , but it is now becoming widely available on the mineral markets. Other more common and more well-known tourmalines are schorl (black, opaque and iron rich) and elbaite (various colors, transpar...

Vauxite
(Hydrated Iron Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide) Vauxite is an unusual blue-colored iron mineral. As a coloring agent in minerals, iron can produce any color in the rainbow but commonly produces reds, yellows and browns. Especially common is the red to yellow color of rust, limonite , powdered hematite and other iron oxides. T...

Wardite
(Hydrated Sodium Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide) Wardite is a poorly known mineral, but of special interest to minerologists. It is a mineral that belongs to a unique symmetry class. It is one of only a few minerals that is known to belong to the tetragonal trapezohedral class. This class has only a 4 fold rotational axis an...

Whiteite
(Hydrated Calcium Iron Manganese Magnesium Aluminum Phosphate Hydroxide) Whiteite is actually a series of minerals that have the same structure but different amounts of certain elements. They are given the rather pragmatic although not imaginative names of whiteite-(CaFeMg), whiteite-(CaMnMg) and whiteite-(MnFeMg). Whiteite-(CaF...

Wolfeite
(Iron Manganese Phosphate Hydroxide) Wolfeite is a rare and obscure mineral. It is found in altered granite pegmatites with other rare phosphate minerals. It is important to note that the iron and manganese ions in wolfeite are in the positive two (+2) oxidation state. This is a reduced state from most altered iron and manganes...

Wurtzite
(Zinc Iron Sulfide) Wurtzite is the not so common cousin of the much more common mineral, sphalerite . Sphalerite and wurtzite are both zinc iron sulfides with the same formula, (Zn, Fe)S. However what makes them different minerals is that they have different structures. The two are called polymorphs (meaning many sha...

Xenotime
(Yttrium Phosphate) Xenotime is one of the very few minerals, let alone words, that starts with the letter X; a good word to remember in some word games. It is a widely spread mineral throughout the world although good crystals and therefore specimens are somewhat hard to find. It is one of the few yttrium minerals known to sci...

Zircon
(Zirconium Silicate) Zircon's reputation has suffered of late due to the introduction of a diamond simulant. So for the record, zircon (zirconium silicate, ZrSiO 4 ) is NOT the same material as the artificial gem material Cubic Zirconia (zirconium oxide, ZrO 2 ). However with that in mind, zircon has ...

Zincite
(Zinc Oxide) Zincite is a one locality mineral. Well actually that is not true. It is found at several localities around the world; and is rare and inconspicuous at all but one general site. That site is the famous zinc and manganese mines of the Sterling Hill and Franklin, New Jersey, USA area. Many rare minerals are found ther...

Zippeite
(Hydrated Potassium Uranyl Sulfate Hydroxide) Zippeite is a rare mineral but is sought after by collectors who seek uranium bearing minerals as well as minerals that have exotic names. Zippeite fluoresces under ultraviolet light. The mineral is inconsistent however in the color that is produced. Zippeite is formed as a secondary...

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