berlinite

Berlinite (aluminium phosphate, chemical formula AlPO4 or Al(PO4)) is a rare high-temperature hydrothermal or metasomatic phosphate mineral. It has the same crystal structure as quartz with a low temperature polytype isostructural with α–quartz and a high temperature polytype isostructural with β–quartz. Berlinite can vary from colorless to greyish or pale pink and has translucent crystals.

Key facts

Mineral.name: Berlinite
Mineral.image: Berlinite.jpg
Mineral.imagesize: 260px
Mineral.caption: Synthetic berlinite
Mineral.category: Phosphate mineral
Mineral.formula: AlPO4
Mineral.IMAsymbol: Ber
Mineral.strunz: 8.AA.05
Mineral.system: Trigonal
Mineral.class: Trapezohedral (32) H-M symbol: (32)
Mineral.symmetry: P3121, P3221
Mineral.unit cell: a = 4.941 Å, c = 10.94 Å; Z = 3
Mineral.color: Colorless, pale gray, may be pale rose
Mineral.habit: Typically granular to massive
Mineral.twinning: Subparallel lamellae
Mineral.fracture: Conchoidal
Mineral.mohs: 6.5
Mineral.luster: Vitreous

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Has part: aluminium phosphate
Named after: Nils Johan Berlin
Image: Blue Berlinite.jpg

Show 9 more facts

IMA Mineral Symbol: Ber
Strunz 8th edition (series ID, updated): VII/A.01
Mohs' hardness: 6.5
density: 2.650
Commons category: Berlinite
chemical formula: AlPO₄
Nickel-Strunz 9th edition (updated 2009): 8.AA.05
Nickel-Strunz '10th ed', review of (9th ed/ 2009 update): 8.AA.05
crystal system: trigonal crystal system

Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~1 min read

Encyclopedic overview

2 sections

Contents

References
Further reading

It was first described in 1868 for an occurrence in the Västanå iron mine, Scania, Sweden and named for Nils Johan Berlin (1812–1891) of Lund University.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “berlinite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.