bischofite
Sign in to saveBischofite is a hydrous magnesium chloride mineral with formula MgCl2·6H2O. It belongs to halides and is a sea salt concentrate. It contains many macro- and micro-elements vital for human health, in much higher concentrations than can be found in sea or ocean salt. The main bischofite compound is magnesium chloride (up to 350 g/L), moreover, it contains about 70 other elements as impurities, including potassium, sodium, bromine, boron, calcium, silicon, molybdenum, silver, zinc, iron and copper.
Key facts
- Mineral.name
- Bischofite
- Mineral.category
- Halide mineral
- Mineral.image
- Bischofite - Antofagasta.JPG
- Mineral.caption
- Bischofite from Antofagasta, Chile
- Mineral.formula
- MgCl2·6H2O
- Mineral.IMAsymbol
- Bsf
- Mineral.strunz
- 3.BB.15
- Mineral.dana
- 09.02.09.01
- Mineral.system
- Monoclinic
- Mineral.class
- Prismatic (2/m) (same H-M symbol)
- Mineral.symmetry
- C2/m
- Mineral.color
- Colorless to white
- Mineral.habit
- Fibrous to massive
- Mineral.twinning
- polysynthetic
- Mineral.cleavage
- None
- Mineral.fracture
- Conchoidal to uneven
- Mineral.mohs
- 1.5–2
- Mineral.luster
- Vitreous – greasy
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- History
- Deposits
- Applications
- References
- External links
Bischofite is a hydrous magnesium chloride mineral with formula MgCl2·6H2O. It belongs to halides and is a sea salt concentrate. It contains many macro- and micro-elements vital for human health, in much higher concentrations than can be found in sea or ocean salt. The main bischofite compound is magnesium chloride (up to 350 g/L), moreover, it contains about 70 other elements as impurities, including potassium, sodium, bromine, boron, calcium, silicon, molybdenum, silver, zinc, iron and copper.
==History== Bischofite is named in honor of German geologist Gustav Bischof (1792–1870). Its discovery (1877) is attributed to Carl Christian Ochsenius.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “bischofite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.