Macphersonite

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Macphersonite
General
Category Carbonate mineral
Formula
(repeating unit)
Pb4(SO4)(CO3)2 (OH)2
IMA symbol Mps [1]
Strunz classification 5.BF.40
Dana classification17.01.04.01
Crystal system Orthorhombic
Crystal class Dipyramidal (mmm)
H-M symbol: (2/m 2/m 2/m)
Space group Pcab
Unit cell a = 10.37 Å, b = 23.10 Å,
c = 9.25 Å,
β = 106.43°; Z = 8
Identification
Formula mass 1,078.90 g/mol
ColorWhite, pale amber, colorless
Crystal habit Pseudo hexagonal, tabular
Twinning Polysynthetic, lamellar, contact
Cleavage Perfect on {010}
Fracture Uneven
Mohs scale hardness2.5 - 3
Luster Adamantine, otherwise resinous
Streak White
Specific gravity 6.50
Optical propertiesBiaxial (-)
Refractive index nα = 1.870 nβ = 2.000 nγ = 2.010
Birefringence δ = 0.140
2V angle 35-36°
Dispersion r > v
Ultraviolet fluorescence A very strong and vivid yellow
Other characteristicsPolymorph of leadhillite and susannite
References [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Macphersonite, Pb4(SO4)(CO3)2 (OH)2, is a carbonate mineral that is trimorphous with leadhillite and susannite. Macphersonite is generally white, colorless, or a pale amber in color and has a white streak. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic system with a space group of Pcab. It is fairly soft mineral that has a high specific gravity.

Contents

Macphersonite is named after Harry Gordon Macpherson, [4] a keeper of minerals at the Royal Scottish Museum. It was discovered and accepted in 1984.

Structure

The structure of macphersonite is represented as a sequence of three layers stacked along the [001]. The first layer is a sulfate tetrahedra, the second is of lead and hydroxide, and the third is a layer composed of lead and carbonate. Stacking of the three layers can be detailed as ...BABCCBABCC... [5] similar to leadhillite. Two C layers of lead carbonate in the BAB stacking provide a weak connection that leads to the perfect {001} cleavage.

Physical properties

The Leadhills macphersonite is a very pale amber to colorless in color, while the Argentolle mine macphersonite is colorless to white. [4] It has a luster of adamantine on fresh surfaces and elsewhere it is resinous. Macphersonite is soft with a 2.5-3 on the Mohs hardness, has an uneven fracture with a high density of 6.5g/cm3. [3]

Macphersonite has a very strong yellow fluorescence under both long and short wave, ultraviolet is displayed by the Leadhills specimens, the Argentolle material does not fluoresce.

Occurrence

Macphersonite is found in the Leadhills region of southwest Scotland and in the Saint-Prix, Saône-et-Loire region of France. It is the rarest of the three polymorphs. It occurs in lead deposits associated with cerussite, susannite, caledonite, scotlandite, leadhillite, galena and pyromorphite.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cerussite</span> Lead carbonate mineral

Cerussite (also known as lead carbonate or white lead ore) is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and is an important ore of lead. The name is from the Latin cerussa, white lead. Cerussa nativa was mentioned by Conrad Gessner in 1565, and in 1832 F. S. Beudant applied the name céruse to the mineral, whilst the present form, cerussite, is due to W. Haidinger (1845). Miners' names in early use were lead-spar and white-lead-ore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglesite</span> Lead sulfate mineral

Anglesite is a lead sulfate mineral with the chemical formula PbSO4. It occurs as an oxidation product of primary lead sulfide ore, galena. Anglesite occurs as prismatic orthorhombic crystals and earthy masses, and is isomorphous with barite and celestine. It contains 74% of lead by mass and therefore has a high specific gravity of 6.3. Anglesite's color is white or gray with pale yellow streaks. It may be dark gray if impure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vaterite</span> Calcium carbonate mineral

Vaterite is a mineral, a polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It was named after the German mineralogist Heinrich Vater. It is also known as mu-calcium carbonate (μ-CaCO3). Vaterite belongs to the hexagonal crystal system, whereas calcite is trigonal and aragonite is orthorhombic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caledonite</span>

Caledonite, whose name derives from Caledonia, the historical name of its place of discovery (Scotland), is a richly colored blue-green sulfate-carbonate mineral of lead and copper with an orthorhombic crystal structure. It is an uncommon mineral found in the oxidized zones of copper-lead deposits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lanarkite</span>

Lanarkite is a mineral, a form of lead sulfate with formula Pb2(SO4)O. It was originally found at Leadhills in the Scottish county of Lanarkshire, hence the name. It forms white or light green, acicular monoclinic prismatic crystals, usually microscopic in size. It is an oxidation product of galena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leadhillite</span> Lead sulfate carbonate hydroxide mineral

Leadhillite is a lead sulfate carbonate hydroxide mineral, often associated with anglesite. It has the formula Pb4SO4(CO3)2(OH)2. Leadhillite crystallises in the monoclinic system, but develops pseudo-hexagonal forms due to crystal twinning. It forms transparent to translucent variably coloured crystals with an adamantine lustre. It is quite soft with a Mohs hardness of 2.5 and a relatively high specific gravity of 6.26 to 6.55.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alamosite</span> Colorless silicate mineral

Alamosite (Pb12Si12O36) is a colorless silicate mineral named after the place where it was discovered, Álamos, Sonora, Mexico. It is a rare secondary mineral occurring in the oxidized zones of lead-rich deposits. For example, the infobox picture shows its association with black leadhillite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kegelite</span>

Kegelite is a complex silicate mineral with formula Pb8Al4Si8O20(SO4)2(CO3)4(OH)8.

Barbertonite is a magnesium chromium carbonate mineral with formula of Mg6Cr2(OH)16CO3·4H2O. It is polymorphous with the mineral stichtite and, along with stichtite, is an alteration product of chromite in serpentinite. Barbertonite has a close association with stichtite, chromite, and antigorite (Taylor, 1973). Mills et al. (2011) presented evidence that barbertonite is a polytype of stichtite and should be discredited as a mineral species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosickýite</span>

Rosickyite is a rare native element mineral that is a polymorph of sulfur. It crystallizes in the monoclinic crystal system and is a high temperature, high density polymorph. It occurs as soft, colorless to pale yellow crystals and efflorescences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurionite</span>

Laurionite is a lead halide mineral. It forms colorless to white crystals in the orthorhombic crystal system and is dimorphous with paralaurionite, both members of the matlockite group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susannite</span>

Susannite is a lead sulfate carbonate hydroxide mineral. It has the formula Pb4SO4(CO3)2(OH)2. Susannite is the higher temperature phase of the two and forms above 80 °C when fluids oxidize the lead ore deposits. It is trimorphous with leadhillite and macphersonite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paralaurionite</span>

Paralaurionite is a colorless mineral consisting of a basic lead chloride PbCl(OH) that is dimorphous with laurionite. It is a member of the matlockite group. The name is derived from para-, the Greek for "near", and laurionite, because of its polymorphic relationship to it. Bright, yellow tips of thorikosite can form on paralaurionite crystals and paralaurionite may also be intergrown with mendipite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tarbuttite</span> Phosphate mineral

Tarbuttite is a rare phosphate mineral with formula Zn2(PO4)(OH). It was discovered in 1907 in what is now Zambia and named for Percy Coventry Tarbutt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ianbruceite</span>

Ianbruceite is a rare hydrated zinc arsenate with the formula [Zn2(OH)(H2O)(AsO4)](H2O)2; material from the Driggith mine has traces of cobalt. It was first discovered at Tsumeb, approved by the International Mineralogical Association as a new mineral species in 2011, reference IMA2011-49, and named for Ian Bruce, who founded "Crystal Classics" in the early 1990s, and was heavily involved in attempts to reopen the famous Tsumeb mine for specimen mining.
In 2013 new occurrences of ianbruceite were reported from the neighbouring Driggith and Potts Gill mines on High Pike in the Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria, England. Here the mineral is probably a post-mining product. Caldbeck Fells and Tsumeb are the only reported localities for ianbruceite to date (May 2013).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brianyoungite</span>

Brianyoungite is a secondary zinc carbonate mineral. The Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC) of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) classifies it as a carbonate with the formula Zn3(CO3)(OH)4, but sulfate groups SO4 also occupy the carbonate CO3 positions, in the ratio of about one sulfate to three carbonates, so other sources give the formula as Zn3(CO3,SO4)(OH)4, and Gaines et al. classify the mineral as a compound carbonate. It is similar in appearance to hydrozincite, another zinc carbonate. It was discovered in 1991 and designated IMA1991-053. In 1993 it was named "brianyoungite" after Brian Young (born 1947), a field geologist with the British Geological Survey, who provided the first specimens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abellaite</span> Hydrous carbonate mineral

Abellaite is a hydrous carbonate mineral discovered in the abandoned Eureka uranium mine in the village of Torre de Capdella (Lleida province), Catalonia, Spain. The ideal chemical formula of abellaite is NaPb2(CO3)2(OH). It is named in honor of Joan Abella i Creus, a Catalan gemmologist who has long studied minerals from the Eureka mine and first found abellaite in the mine. A team composed, among others, by Jordi Ibáñez-Insa from the Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera (CSIC) and by Joan Viñals and Xavier Llovet from the University of Barcelona, identified and characterized the mineral’s structure and chemical composition.

Scotlandite is a sulfite mineral first discovered in a mine at Leadhills in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, an area known to mineralogists and geologists for its wide range of different mineral species found in the veins that lie deep in the mine shafts. This specific mineral is found in the Susanna vein of Leadhills, where the crystals are formed as chisel-shaped or bladed. Scotlandite was actually the first naturally occurring sulfite, which has the ideal chemical formula of PbSO3. The mineral has been approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, IMA, to be named scotlandite for Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mammothite</span>

Mammothite is a mineral found in the Mammoth mine in Tiger, Arizona and also in Laurium, Attika, Greece. This mineral was named in 1985 by Donald R. Peacor, Pete J. Dunn, G. Schnorrer-Köhler, and Richard A. Bideaux, for the Mammoth vein (one of the two main veins in the mine) and the town of Mammoth, Arizona, which was named for the mine. The mammothite that is found in Arizona exist as euhedral crystals imbedded in micro granular, white colored anglesite with a saccharoidal texture. The associated minerals include phosgenite, wulfenite, leadhillite and caledonite. In Greece, the mammothite exists as small euhedral crystals and also as microscopic rock cavities lined with projecting crystals within the slags. The associated minerals here are cerussite, phosgenite and matlockite. The ideal chemical formula for mammothite is Pb6Cu4AlSb5+O2(OH)16Cl4(SO4)2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sulfate carbonate</span> Class of chemical compounds

The sulfate carbonates are a compound carbonates, or mixed anion compounds that contain sulfate and carbonate ions. Sulfate carbonate minerals are in the 7.DG and 5.BF Nickel-Strunz groupings.

References

  1. Warr, L.N. (2021). "IMA–CNMNC approved mineral symbols". Mineralogical Magazine. 85 (3): 291–320. Bibcode:2021MinM...85..291W. doi: 10.1180/mgm.2021.43 . S2CID   235729616.
  2. Mineralienatlas
  3. 1 2 Web Mineral
  4. 1 2 3 Livingstone, A.; Sarp, H. (1984). "Macphersonite, a new mineral from Leadhills, Scotland, and Saint-Prix, France – a polymorph of leadhillite and susannite" (PDF). Mineralogical Magazine. 48 (347): 277–82. Bibcode:1984MinM...48..277L. doi:10.1180/minmag.1984.048.347.14. S2CID   55488942 . Retrieved 26 June 2016.
  5. 1 2 Steele, Ian, Pluth, Joseph, Livingstone, Alan. Crystal structure of macphersonite (Pb4(SO4)(CO3)2 (OH)2): comparison with leadhillite Mineralogical Magazine, 1998 vol 62(4), pp 451=459
  6. Macphersonite data on Mindat