Dana's classification [1] [2] is a mineral classification developed by James Dwight Dana. It is based on the chemical composition and structure of minerals. It is mainly used in English-speaking countries, especially in the United States.
The mineral classification used by the International Mineralogical Association is the Nickel-Strunz classification. [3] [4]
The classification of minerals was based on chemical composition by Dana in the fourth edition (1854, in two volumes) of his book System of Mineralogy. [5] [6] For the 20th century, this classification was completed thanks to scientific progress, particularly in the field of crystallography. In 1941, Karl Hugo Strunz used it to construct his classification. Dana's original classification was further developed, and a new classification was published in 1997. [7]
Minerals are arranged in a hierarchical system. Each mineral has a classification number, made up of four numbers separated by dots, enabling unambiguous identification even when minerals are known by several names (synonymy). The first number represents the mineral class. The second number represents the mineral type, in some cases taking into account its atomic structure. The third number represents a group of minerals of similar structure. The fourth number gives the unambiguous identification of the mineral. [8] [9]
| Elements | Chemical element |
| Sulfides and sulfosalts | |
| Oxides and hydroxides |
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| Halides |
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| Carbonates, nitrates and borates |
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| Sulfates, chromates and molybdates |
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| Phosphates, arsenates and vanadates |
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| Organic minerals |
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| Silicates and germanates | |
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Goslarite is a hydrated zinc sulfate mineral which was first found in the Rammelsberg mine, Goslar, Harz, Germany. It was described in 1847. Goslarite belongs to the epsomite group which also includes epsomite and morenosite. Goslarite is an unstable mineral at the surface and will dehydrate to other minerals like bianchite, boyleite and gunningite.
Torbernite, also known as chalcolite, is a relatively common mineral with the chemical formula Cu[(UO2)(PO4)]2(H2O)12. It is a radioactive, hydrated green copper uranyl phosphate, found in granites and other uranium-bearing deposits as a secondary mineral. The chemical formula of torbernite is similar to that of autunite in which a Cu2+ cation replaces a Ca2+ cation. Torbernite tends to dehydrate to metatorbernite with the sum formula Cu[(UO2)(PO4)]2(H2O)8.
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.
The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide (S2−) or disulfide as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, the arsenides, the antimonides, the bismuthinides, the sulfarsenides and the sulfosalts. Sulfide minerals are inorganic compounds.
Carbonate minerals are those minerals containing the carbonate ion, CO2−
3.
Sulfosalt minerals are sulfide minerals with the general formula AmBnXp, where
The oxide mineral class includes those minerals in which the oxide anion (O2−) is bonded to one or more metal alloys. The hydroxide-bearing minerals are typically included in the oxide class. Minerals with complex anion groups such as the silicates, sulfates, carbonates and phosphates are classed separately.
Szomolnokite (Fe2+SO4·H2O) is a monoclinic iron sulfate mineral forming a complete solid solution with magnesium end-member kieserite (MgSO4·H2O). In 1877 szomolnokite's name was derived by Joseph Krenner from its type locality of oxidized sulfide ore containing iron in Szomolnok, Slovakia (Hungary at the time).
Nickel–Strunz classification is a scheme for categorizing minerals based upon their chemical composition, introduced by German mineralogist Karl Hugo Strunz in his Mineralogische Tabellen (1941). The 4th and the 5th edition was also edited by Christel Tennyson (1966). It was followed by A.S. Povarennykh with a modified classification.
Halide minerals are those minerals with a dominant halide anion. Complex halide minerals may also have polyatomic anions.
The sulfarsenide minerals are a subgroup of the sulfide minerals which include arsenic replacing sulfur as an anion in the formula. Antimony and bismuth may occur with or in place of the arsenic as in ullmannite. The chemical formula of a sulfarsenide looks like a sulfosalt, however the structures are distinctly different. In sulfosalts the arsenic replaces a metal ion.
The sulfate minerals are a class of minerals that include the sulfate ion within their structure. The sulfate minerals occur commonly in primary evaporite depositional environments, as gangue minerals in hydrothermal veins and as secondary minerals in the oxidizing zone of sulfide mineral deposits. The chromate and manganate minerals have a similar structure and are often included with the sulfates in mineral classification systems.
Coloradoite, also known as mercury telluride (HgTe), is a rare telluride ore associated with metallic deposit. Gold usually occurs within tellurides, such as coloradoite, as a high-finess native metal.
This list gives an overview of the classification of non-silicate minerals and includes mostly International Mineralogical Association (IMA) recognized minerals and its groupings. This list complements the List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association series of articles and List of minerals. Rocks, ores, mineral mixtures, not IMA approved minerals, not named minerals are mostly excluded. Mostly major groups only, or groupings used by New Dana Classification and Mindat.
Georgius Agricola is considered the 'father of mineralogy'. Nicolas Steno founded the stratigraphy, the geology characterizes the rocks in each layer and the mineralogy characterizes the minerals in each rock. The chemical elements were discovered in identified minerals and with the help of the identified elements the mineral crystal structure could be described. One milestone was the discovery of the geometrical law of crystallization by René Just Haüy, a further development of the work by Nicolas Steno and Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle. Important contributions came from some Saxon "Bergraths"/ Freiberg Mining Academy: Johann F. Henckel, Abraham Gottlob Werner and his students. Other milestones were the notion that metals are elements too and the periodic table of the elements by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. The overview of the organic bonds by Kekulé was necessary to understand the silicates, first refinements described by Bragg and Machatschki; and it was only possibly to understand a crystal structure with Dalton's atomic theory, the notion of atomic orbital and Goldschmidt's explanations. Specific gravity, streak and X-ray powder diffraction are quite specific for a Nickel-Strunz identifier. Nowadays, non-destructive electron microprobe analysis is used to get the empirical formula of a mineral. Finally, the International Zeolite Association (IZA) took care of the zeolite frameworks.
Chvaleticeite is a monoclinic hexahydrite manganese magnesium sulfate mineral with formula: (Mn2+, Mg)[SO4]·6(H2O). It occurs in the oxidized zone of manganese silicate deposits with pyrite and rhodochrosite that have undergone regional and contact metamorphism. It is defined as the manganese dominant member of the hexahydrite group.
Köttigite is a rare hydrated zinc arsenate which was discovered in 1849 and named by James Dwight Dana in 1850 in honour of Otto Friedrich Köttig (1824–1892), a German chemist from Schneeberg, Saxony, who made the first chemical analysis of the mineral. It has the formula Zn3(AsO4)2·8H2O and it is a dimorph of metaköttigite, which means that the two minerals have the same formula, but a different structure: köttigite is monoclinic and metaköttigite is triclinic. There are several minerals with similar formulae but with other cations in place of the zinc. Iron forms parasymplesite Fe2+3(AsO4)2·8H2O; cobalt forms the distinctively coloured pinkish purple mineral erythrite Co3(AsO4)2·8H2O and nickel forms annabergite Ni3(AsO4)2·8H2O. Köttigite forms series with all three of these minerals and they are all members of the vivianite group.
Ferronickel platinum is a very rarely occurring minerals from the mineral class of elements (including natural alloys, intermetallic compounds, carbides, nitrides, phosphides and silicides) with the chemical composition Pt2FeNi and thus is chemically seen as a natural alloy, more precisely an intermetallic compound of platinum, nickel and iron in a ratio of 2:1:1.
Uramphite is a rarely-found phosphate mineral in the "phosphate, arsenate and vanadate" mineral class with chemical composition (NH4)2[UO2PO4]2·6H2O from which it is seen to be a hydrated ammonium uranyl phosphate.
| Overview |  | |
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| Common minerals | ||
| Related | ||
| "Special cases" ("native elements and organic minerals") |
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| "Sulfides and oxides" |
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| "Evaporites and similars" |
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| "Mineral structures with tetrahedral units" (sulfate anion, phosphate anion, silicon, etc.) |
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