Biotite is a common group of phyllosilicate minerals within the mica group, with the approximate chemical formula K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(F,OH)2. It is primarily a solid-solution series between the iron-endmember annite, and the magnesium-endmember phlogopite; more aluminous end-members include siderophyllite and eastonite. Biotite was regarded as a mineral species by the International Mineralogical Association until 1998, when its status was changed to a mineral group. The term biotite is still used to describe unanalysed dark micas in the field. Biotite was named by J.F.L. Hausmann in 1847 in honor of the French physicist Jean-Baptiste Biot, who performed early research into the many optical properties of mica.
Kaolinite ( KAY-ə-lə-nyte, -lih-; also called kaolin) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica (SiO4) linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina (AlO6).
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, Al2Si2O5(OH)4). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impurities, such as a reddish or brownish colour from small amounts of iron oxide.
In crystallography, crystal structure is a description of the ordered arrangement of atoms, ions, or molecules in a crystalline material. Ordered structures occur from the intrinsic nature of the constituent particles to form symmetric patterns that repeat along the principal directions of three-dimensional space in matter.
Strontianite (SrCO3) is an important raw material for the extraction of strontium. It is a rare carbonate mineral and one of only a few strontium minerals. It is a member of the aragonite group.
Carbon is capable of forming many allotropes due to its valency. Well-known forms of carbon include diamond and graphite. In recent decades, many more allotropes have been discovered and researched, including ball shapes such as buckminsterfullerene and sheets such as graphene. Larger-scale structures of carbon include nanotubes, nanobuds and nanoribbons. Other unusual forms of carbon exist at very high temperatures or extreme pressures. Around 500 hypothetical 3‑periodic allotropes of carbon are known at the present time, according to the Samara Carbon Allotrope Database (SACADA).
Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2Si2O5(OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces.
Cleavage, in mineralogy and materials science, is the tendency of crystalline materials to split along definite crystallographic structural planes. These planes of relative weakness are a result of the regular locations of atoms and ions in the crystal, which create smooth repeating surfaces that are visible both in the microscope and to the naked eye. If bonds in certain directions are weaker than others, the crystal will tend to split along the weakly bonded planes. These flat breaks are termed "cleavage". The classic example of cleavage is mica, which cleaves in a single direction along the basal pinacoid, making the layers seem like pages in a book. In fact, mineralogists often refer to "books of mica".
Halloysite is an aluminosilicate clay mineral with the empirical formula Al2Si2O5(OH)4. Its main constituents are oxygen (55.78%), silicon (21.76%), aluminium (20.90%), and hydrogen (1.56%). It is a member of the kaolinite group. Halloysite typically forms by hydrothermal alteration of alumino-silicate minerals. It can occur intermixed with dickite, kaolinite, montmorillonite and other clay minerals. X-ray diffraction studies are required for positive identification. It was first described in 1826, and subsequently named after, the Belgian geologist Omalius d'Halloy.
Afwillite is a calcium hydroxide nesosilicate mineral with formula Ca3(SiO3OH)2·2H2O. It occurs as glassy, colorless to white prismatic monoclinic crystals. Its Mohs scale hardness is between 3 and 4. It occurs as an alteration mineral in contact metamorphism of limestone. It occurs in association with apophyllite, natrolite, thaumasite, merwinite, spurrite, gehlenite, ettringite, portlandite, hillebrandite, foshagite, brucite and calcite.
The Kaolin deposits of the Charentes Basin in France are clay deposits formed sedimentarily and then confined by other geological structures.
Iddingsite is a microcrystalline rock that is derived from alteration of olivine. It is usually studied as a mineral, and consists of a mixture of remnant olivine, clay minerals, iron oxides, and ferrihydrites. Debates over iddingsite's non-definite crystal structure caused it to be de-listed as an official mineral by the IMA; thus, it is properly referred to as a rock.
Bararite is a natural form of ammonium fluorosilicate (also known as hexafluorosilicate or fluosilicate). It has chemical formula (NH4)2SiF6 and trigonal crystal structure. This mineral was once classified as part of cryptohalite. Bararite is named after the place where it was first described, Barari, India. It is found at the fumaroles of volcanoes (Vesuvius, Italy), over burning coal seams (Barari, India), and in burning piles of anthracite (Pennsylvania, U.S.). It is a sublimation product that forms with cryptohalite, sal ammoniac, and native sulfur.
Zirconium phosphates (zirconium hydrogen phosphate) are acidic, inorganic cation exchange materials that have a layered structure with formula Zr(HPO4)2∙nH2O. These salts have high thermal and chemical stability, solid state ion conductivity, resistance to ionizing radiation, and the capacity to incorporate different types of molecules with different sizes between their layers. There are various phases of zirconium phosphate which vary in their interlaminar spaces and their crystalline structure. Among all the Zirconium phosphate phases the most widely used are the alpha (Zr(HPO4)2∙H2O) and the gamma (Zr(PO4)(H2PO4)∙2H2O) phase. The salts have been widely used in several applications such as: drug delivery, catalysis, nanocomposite, nuclear waste management, clinical dialyzer, among others.
Hidalgoite, PbAl3(AsO4)(SO4)(OH)4, is a rare member of the beudantite group and is usually classified as part of the alunite family. It was named after the place where it was first discovered, the Zimapán mining district, Hidalgo, Mexico. At Hidalgo where it was initially discovered, it was found as dense white masses in alternating dikes of quartz latite and quartz monzonite alongside other secondary minerals such as sphalerite, arsenopyrite, cerussite and trace amounts of angelsite and alamosite, it was then rediscovered at other locations such as Australia where it occurs on oxidized shear zones above greywacke shales especially on the anticline prospects of the area, and on fine grained quartz-spessartine rocks in Broken Hill, Australia. Hidalgoite specimens are usually associated with copper minerals, clay minerals, iron oxides and polymetallic sulfides in occurrence.
Guyanaite (CrOOH) is a chromium oxide mineral that forms as an intergrowth with other chromium oxide minerals known as bracewellite (CrOOH) and grimaldiite (CrOOH) as well as eskolaite (Cr2O3) which in early findings were nearly indistinguishable from one another. These oxides formed so closely as intergrowths with one another that they were initially, and erroneously, identified as a single definite mineral previously known as merumite. Because of its complex history and the previously undiscovered nature of these chromium oxide polymorphs, the relevance of any information found in many early experiments involving the mineral formerly known as merumite in regard to guyanaite is unknown and it is implied that in any further reference of merumite it will have been composed of a mineral assemblage including guyanaite. The rare occurrence and complexity from intergrowth of naturally occurring guyanaite hinders experimental work, leading to laboratory synthesized samples which help to better experiment with the minerals.
Mineral alteration refers to the various natural processes that alter a mineral's chemical composition or crystallography.
George-ericksenite is a mineral with the chemical formula Na6CaMg(IO3)6(CrO4)2(H2O)12. It is vitreous, pale yellow to bright lemon yellow, brittle, and features a prismatic to acicular crystal habit along [001] and somewhat flattened crystal habit on {110}. It was first encountered in 1984 at the Pinch Mineralogical Museum. One specimen of dietzeite from Oficina Chacabuco, Chile had bright lemon-yellow micronodules on it. These crystals produced an X-ray powder diffraction pattern that did not match any XRD data listed for inorganic compounds. The X-ray diffraction pattern and powder mount were set aside until 1994. By then, the entire mineral collection from the Pinch Mineralogical Museum had been purchased by the Canadian Museum of Nature. The specimen was then retrieved and studied further. This study was successful and the new mineral george-ericksenite was discovered. The mineral was named for George E. Ericksen who was a research economic geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey for fifty years. The mineral and name have been approved by Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (IMA). The specimen, polished thin section, and the actual crystal used for the structure determination are kept in the Display Series of the National Mineral Collection of Canada at the Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario.
The soil matrix is the solid phase of soils, and comprise the solid particles that make up soils. Soil particles can be classified by their chemical composition (mineralogy) as well as their size. The particle size distribution of a soil, its texture, determines many of the properties of that soil, in particular hydraulic conductivity and water potential, but the mineralogy of those particles can strongly modify those properties. The mineralogy of the finest soil particles, clay, is especially important.
