switzerite
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Switzerite is a mineral with the chemical formula of (Mn)3(PO4)2·7H2O. The mineral was named after George Switzer, former Curator of Minerals at the US National Museum. The mineral is monoclinic prismatic, meaning that it has one mirror plane, one 2-fold rotation axis which is perpendicular to the mirror plane and a center of symmetry. Switzerite is a part of the monoclinic space group P 21/a. For its optical properties, Switzerite is classified as anisotropic, has a low surface relief and birefringence of δ = 0.020.
Key facts
- Mineral.name
- Switzerite
- Mineral.category
- Phosphate minerals
- Mineral.image
- Metaswitzerite-177958.jpg
- Mineral.caption
- Switzerite (metaswitzerite) from Foote Lithium County Mine, Kings Mountain District, Cleveland County, North Carolina, US
- Mineral.formula
- (Mn,Fe)3(PO4)2·7H2O
- Mineral.molweight
- 481.55 g/mol
- Mineral.strunz
- 8.CE.25
- Mineral.system
- Monoclinic
- Mineral.class
- Prismatic (2/m) (same H-M symbol)
- Mineral.symmetry
- P21/a
- Mineral.unit cell
- a = 8.528 Å b = 13.166 Å c = 11.812 Å; β = 110.05° Z = 4; V = 1,245.87 Å3
- Mineral.color
- Pale pink, Pinkish brown
- Mineral.cleavage
- Perfect (001) Cleavage
- Mineral.mohs
- 2
- Mineral.luster
- Pearly
- Mineral.opticalprop
- Biaxial (-)
- Mineral.streak
- White
- Mineral.density
- 2.535
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- phosphate mineral
- Image
- Metaswitzerite-177958.jpg
Show 8 more facts
- Commons category
- Switzerite
- Nickel-Strunz '10th ed', review of (9th ed/ 2009 update)
- 8.CE.25
- Nickel-Strunz 9th edition (updated 2009)
- 8.CE.25
- streak color
- white
- crystal system
- monoclinic crystal system
- IMA Mineral Symbol
- Swt
- chemical formula
- Mn²⁺₃(PO₄)₂ * 7H₂O
- Strunz 8th edition (series ID, updated)
- VII/C.07
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
1 sectionsContents
- References
Switzerite is a mineral with the chemical formula of (Mn)3(PO4)2·7H2O. The mineral was named after George Switzer, former Curator of Minerals at the US National Museum. The mineral is monoclinic prismatic, meaning that it has one mirror plane, one 2-fold rotation axis which is perpendicular to the mirror plane and a center of symmetry. Switzerite is a part of the monoclinic space group P 21/a. For its optical properties, Switzerite is classified as anisotropic, has a low surface relief and birefringence of δ = 0.020.
Switzerite was first discovered in the 1960s and is a relatively uncommon mineral found in a few localities in Europe, North America, and Australia. This mineral is found in phosphate mines, along with other phosphate minerals. Alone, Switzerite does not have a huge significance due to its rarity and extremely small size. This mineral is found with other phosphate minerals thus, the importance of Switzerite is that it is used, along with the other phosphate minerals, for agricultural purposes. It is unstable and immediately dehydrates into metaswitzerite on exposure to the atmosphere.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “switzerite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.