Chegemite Ca₇(SiO₄)₃(OH)₂ - a new humite-group calcium mineral from the Northern Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia

Authors: Galuskin, Evgeny V.; Gazeev, Viktor M.; Lazic, Biljana; Armbruster, Thomas; Galuskina, Irina O.; Zadov, Aleksander E.; Pertsev, Nikolai N.; Wrzalik, Roman; Dzierżanowski, Piotr; Gurbanov, Anatoly G.; Bzowska, Grażyna

Source: European Journal of Mineralogy, Volume 21, Number 5, October 2009 , pp. 1045-1059(15)

Publisher: E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung

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Abstract:

The new mineral chegemite Ca₇(SiO₄)₃(OH)₂ (Pbnm, Z = 4)1, a = 5.0696(1), b = 11.3955(1), c = 23.5571(3) Å; V = 1360.91(4) Å³ - the calcium and hydroxyl analogue of humite - was discovered as a rock-forming mineral in high-temperature skarns in calcareous xenoliths in ignimbrites of the Upper Chegem volcanic structure, Northern Caucasus, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. The chegemite forms granular aggregates with grain sizes up to 5 mm and is associated with various high-temperature minerals: larnite, spurrite, rondorfite, reinhardbraunsite, wadalite, lakargiite, and srebrodolskite, corresponding to the sanidinite metamorphic facies. The empirical formula of the holotype chegemite (mean of 68 analyses) is Ca₇(Si_0.997Ti_0.003O₄)₃(OH)_1.48F_0.52. Chegemite is characterized by the following optical properties: 2V_Z = -80(8)°, α = 1.621(2), β = 1.626(3), γ = 1.630(2); Δ = 0.009; density D_calc = 2.892 g/cm³. The crystal structure, including hydrogen positions, has been refined from single-crystal MoKα X-ray diffraction data to R = 2.2 %. Octahedral Ca-O distances are similar to those of γ-Ca₂SiO₄ (calcio-olivine). As is characteristic of OH-dominant humite-group minerals, two disordered H positions could be resolved. The main bands in the FTIR-spectra of chegemite are at 3550, 3542, 3475, 927, 906, 865, 820, 800, 756, 705, 653, 561, 519 and 437 cm^-1. Those in non-polarized Raman spectra are at 389, 403, 526, 818, 923.5, 3478, 3551 and 3563 cm^-1. The X-ray diffraction powder-pattern (FeKα-radiation) shows the strongest lines {d [Å](I_obs)} at: 1.907(10), 2.993(8), 2.700(8), 3.015(7), 2.720(7), 2.834(6), 3.639(5), and 3.040(5).

Keywords: CHEGEMITE; NEW MINERAL; HUMITE-GROUP; CRYSTAL STRUCTURE; CSH; SKARN; XENOLITH; CAUCASUS; RUSSIA

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1127/0935-1221/2009/0021-1962

Publication date: 2009-10-01

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