Kunzite (Spodumene)
Kunzite is a known member of the Spodumene category of minerals which also includes Hiddenite. It’s a treasure that is beautiful is discovered as colourless, pale to deep pink and purplish pink. Kunzite is strongly pleochroic, meaning a colour is had by it intensity distinction when viewed from different directions. Spodumene is a lithium aluminium silicate[LiAl[Si2O6] ]with a hardness of 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale. It typically exhibits excellent transparency and a vitreous lustre when cut and polished. Spodumene can often be distinguished by its crystal habit, fracture, and perfect prismatic cleavage, a property it shares with diamond and topaz. Other colours of Spodumene are colourless, yellowish triphane that is pale to deep green (Hiddenite), blue-green and rarely blue.
You can find numerous localities for fine Kunzite crystals Nuristan that is including district Laghman Province, Afghanistan; Minas Gerais, Brazil; Maharashtra, Mt. City, and Anjanabonoina, Madagascar. Into the USA, giant crystals in the Etta mine, near Keystone, Pennington County, South Dakota, and from the Pala district, San Diego County, Ca.
| Category: | Inosilicate |
| Chemical Formula: | LiAl[Si2O6] Lithium aluminium silicate |
| Crystallography: | Monoclinic – Prismatic |
| Crystal Habit: | Spodumene: Crystals are prismatic, typically flattened and striated, to 12.5 m and 54 t. Commonly massive. |
| Twinning: | Common on [100]. |
| Cleavage: | [110] Good, [100] Good, [010] Partings |
| Fracture: | Uneven to Subconchoidal |
| Tenacity: | Brittle |
| Hardness (Mohs): | 6.5 – 7.0 |
| Density: | 3.03 – 3.23 (g/cm3) |
| Luminescence: | May show Yellow, Orange or Pink fluorescence under LW and SW UV. |
| Radioactivity: | Not Radioactive |
| Color: | Colorless, pale to deep Pink |
| Transparency: | Transparent to Translucent |
| Luster: | Vitreous, Dull; Pearly on cleavages |
| Refractive Index: | 1.653 – 1.682 Biaxial ( + ) |
| Birefringence: | 0.0140 – 0.0270 |
| Dispersion: | Weak; r < v; 0.012 |
| Pleochroism: | Distinct; X = Colorless; Y = Violet Pink; Z = Purple Pink |
