Analcime
Analcime is a user of the Zeolite Group of minerals that is comprised of over 40 minerals including these minerals which can be gem-type Analcime, Barrerite, Chabazite, Epistilbite, Gmelinite-Na, Goosecreekite, Mordenite, Natrolite, Pollucite, Scolecite, Stellerite, Stilbite, Thomsonite and Yugawaralite. The mineral just isn’t uncommon but gem grade crystals are seldom found and so are always small. Crystals are often opaque to slightly found and translucent as colourless, white, grey, yellowish, pink and greenish. Large crystals from Mt. Ste. Hilaire, Quebec, Canada have actually been unearthed that are mostly opaque white but with tiny areas which can face table.
Analcime is certainly one of the unusual minerals that exhibit the end result that is piezoelectric. Piezoelectricity could be the capability of some mineral crystals to create a voltage in reaction to applied mechanical stress such as for example an force that is outside. Piezoelectricity ended up being discovered in 1880 by French physicists, brothers Jacques and Pierre Curie.
Some localities for outstanding specimens: in Italy, at Aci Castello, Cyclopean Islands, and from Val di Fassa and Alpe di Siusi, Trentino-Alto Adige. Big crystals from Kotchechovmo, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Russia. At Breidhdalsheidhi, Iceland. In the Dean Quarry, St. Keverne, Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall, England. Around Glasgow, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. In America, from the Lake Superior District, Houghton County, Michigan; at Cornwall, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania; from Bergen Hill, Hudson County, and West Paterson, Passaic County, New Jersey; on Table Mountain, Jefferson County, Colorado; in the Price Creek quarry, Benton County, Oregon. From the Bay of Fundy district, Nova Scotia; large crystals from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada. From Flinders, Victoria, Australia.
| Chemical Formula: | NaAl(Si2O6)·(H2O) |
| Hydrated Sodium Aluminum Silicate | |
| Molecular Weight: | 220.15 gm |
| Composition: | Sodium | 10.44 % | Na | 14.08 % | Na2O |
| Aluminum | 12.26 % | Al | 23.16 % | Al2O3 | |
| Silicon | 25.51 % | Si | 54.58 % | SiO2 | |
| Hydrogen | 0.92 % | H | 8.18 % | H2O | |
| Oxygen | 50.87 % | O | |||
| 100.00 % | 100.00 % | = TOTAL OXIDE |
| Crystallography: | Tetragonal – Dipyramidal |
| Crystal Habit: | Commonly euhedral, pseudocubic crystals, to 9 cm, typically showing fine twin striae. As disseminated grains; rarely granular, massive. |
| Twinning: | Common and repeated on [110], [101], and other orientations, from two complex displacive phase transformations during cooling |
| Cleavage: | Very poor on {100}; Indistinct |
| Fracture: | Conchoidal |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Moh’s Hardness: | 5.0 – 5.5 |
| Density: | 2.24 – 2.29 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | Fluorescent; green blue white under SW UV,green, creamy white yellow under LW UV |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Other: | Weakly Piezoelectric, weakly electrostatic when rubbed or heated. |
| Colour: | Colorless, White, Gray, Yellowish, Pink, Greenish |
| Transparency: | Transparent to Translucent |
| Lustre: | Vitreous |
| Refractive Index: | 1.479 – 1.493 Isotropic; anomalously biaxial ( + ) |
| Birefringence: | 0.0010 |
| Dispersion: | Weak |
| Pleochroism: |
None |
