Balangeroite, a New Fibrous Silicate Related to Gageite from Balangero
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
American Mineralogist, Volume 6E, pages 214-219, I9E3 Balangeroite,a new fibrous silicate related to gageitefrom Balangero,Italy Ronpnro CoupecNoxr Dipartimento di Scienzqdella Terra Universitd della Calabria Castiglione scalo, 87030Cosenza, Italy GtoveNNr Fr,nnents Istituto di Mineralogia, Cristallografia e Geochimica "G. Spezia", Universitddi Torino via S. Massimo 22. 10123Torino. Itqlv eNo LRune Flone Istituto di Petrografia, Universitd di Torino and Centro di Studio per i Problemi dell'Orogeno delle Alpi Occidentalidel C.N.R., via S. Massimo22, 10123Torino, Italy Abstract Balangeroiteoccurs as brown asbestiformfibers in a paragenesiswith long-fiber chrysotile,magnetite, and native Fe-Ni in the Balangeroserpentinite (Lanzo Valley, Piedmont,Italy). It is orthorhombicwith a 13.85(4),b 13.58(3), and c 9.65(3)A;a sub-cell with c' : c/3 is stronglyevident. The X-ray powderpattern demonstrates an isostructural relationshipof the newmineral with gageite;the strongestreflections are:9.59(40)(ll0), 6.77(80)(020),3.378(45)(410), 3.278(40Xr40), 2.714(100)(050,510), 2.674(75)(150,223), and 2.516(40)(250).The fibers are elongated parallel to [fi)l], showone or more{/r/<0} cleavages, and are usuallyintergrown with chrysotile.The refractiveindexes are aboutthe same, 1.680(5),both parallel and perpendicular to [fi)l]; coloris darkbrown and yellow brown in thesetwo directions,respectively. Chemical analysis gives a unit-cellcontent of (Mgzs.zoFez2.tqFe].t3Mn?:5Ab.rzCao.ozCro.orTio.or)>rae3Si15.3sO53oe(OH)ls.sz, andthe presenceof a sub-cellwith c' = c/3 suggeststhe formula (Mg,Fe2*,Fe3*,Mn2*,!;o2sir5(O,OH)eo with contentsdivisible by 3; a similarformula is probablyalso correct for the Mn-analogue, gageite.DTA, TGA, and high-temperatureX-ray powder analysesshow structural breakdownwith a total weightloss of 9.4Voand the appearanceof olivineat 8fi)'C. The infrared spectrumshows strong absorptionscorresponding to vibrationsin OH- and (SiO4)4-groups. Introduction Balangero(or San Vittore) mine was brought to our attention by the mineral collector Enrico Beccuti in Europe's most important chrysotile asbestos 1977, and other fresh samples were subsequently mine occurs in the Balangero serpentinite. This is a collected. [t was eventually discovered that a large satellite body of the Lanzo Massif (Lanzo Valley, and relatively pure specimen had existed in the Piedmont, Italy), which is the largest ultramafic Turin University Mineralogy Institute's museum body of the Western Alps- A good referencelist for since 1925with the inventory no. 14873and label the geology and petrology of the area is given by "fibrous serpentine(asbestos!-San Vittore, Balan- Compagnoniet al. (1980). gero." The type material is now depositedin the A recent specimen of a new mineral from the museum. 0003-004x83/0102-0214$02.00 214 COMPAGNONI ET AL.: BALANGEROITE 215 To the workers of the mine the mineral was ble 1) and chemical compositions (Table 2) of known as xylotile or metaxite.Stragiotti (1954) and xylotile and metaxite (Cailldre, 1936),however, do Peretti and Zucchetti (1968)applied the term xylo- not correspond to those of the new mineral. Metax- tile to a mineral from Balangerowith "fibers which ite is usually describedas green and is regardedas a are severalcentimeters long, rigid, xyloid, yellow- variety of antigorite or "serpentine," while xylotile brown and pleochroic." X-ray powder spectra (Ta- is yellow-brown and is classed as a species by Table powder l. X-ray data. For balangeroite,data were obtainedby ditrractometry with CuKa radiation; indexeswith / I 3n are not consideredbecause thev are verv weak. Balangero ite cage i Ee Metaxiteb Xylotileb I d(A) hk1 d (A) I d(A) I d(E) r d(A) oo c oo o ooo 40 9.59 110 9.70 3 9.70 vs 8.16 u 4.31 80 6.77 020 6.79 10 6.87 s 6.92 w 3.81 30 3.405 o40 3.39s 2 6.14 4.72 w 3.38 45 3.378 410 3.355 6 3.44 4.31 w 3.12 40 3.278 140 3.297 4 3.34 3.8r v 2.7O 35 3. 198 oo3 3.277 6 3.25 s 3.s8 w 2,53 30 3.o30 240 3.048 4 3.O8 2.96 w 1.45 too 2.714 05O;510 2.716;2.7L4 8 2.758 VS 2.53 w 2,3O 75 2.674 223tL50 2.680;2.665 8 2.707 s 2.43 w 2.O8 5 2.613 o3.3 2.622 3 2.6s9 w 2.O9 la 1.94 5 2.57I 133 2.576 5 2.614 |.97 w 1.73 30 2.536 520 2.565 6 2.556 t.73 w 1.53 40 2.516 250 2.528 2 2.48L s 1.53 w 1.35 5 2.442 233:440 2.452;2.424 | 2.365 1.31 w 1.29 25 2.324 4L3 2.322 3 2.307 1.05 w l.2Q 10 2.274 610 z.zto 3 2.244 t.oo w 1.02 5 2.243 423 2.226 3 2.116 w o.91 20 2.138 450 2.r37 4 2.151 o.89 25 2.123 503 2.O99 3 2.LO3 10 2.023 360i523 2.O32t2.Oo5 3 2.O81 15 L.927 443iI7O 1.936;I.921 r 2.056 15 1.863 270 I .868 3 2.OI5 a Moonz(1968) 5 1.688 7o3;180 1.685;1.685 3 1.952 b cni,LLanu(trsr) s 1.656 073;553 1.661;1.661 2 t.894 vA = venq ALtLong 10 1.595 106;016;380 1.598;1.597;1.593 3 1.863 ^- == ) L. )ZJ 803;480 L.524;1.524 3 1.802 ls t.494 473;183 1.498;1.493 6 r.674 -*"u* 5 I.475 236 1.480 2 r.627 5 I.443 146; 833; 66 3 1.446;I.445;1.444 2 t.6r7 5 1.358 526;256;763 1.363;l.357 3l ,352 4 r.587 3 1.554 6 1.518 216 COMPAGNONI ET AL.: BALANGEROITE Table 2. Chemical analyses of balangeroite and related Long fiber asbestosveins containing balangeroite compounds developed early in the Balangero serpentinite evo- lution, as indicated by the presence of chrysotile corroded by metamorphic olivine which, in turn, has been partially transformed into antigorite by t{CO 30.35 - 34.15 31.81 13.93 37.68 later shear movements along the original veins FeO 2L.43 - 27.95 15.95t 0.60 r.ov (Compagnoniet al., 1980).Balangeroite also has Ftzo3 8.89" 1g.3o 2.94 been identified in thin sections of rocks from the lIno 2.93 - 3.92 3.59 0.17 Lanzo Massif as a pseudomorph after orthopyrox- ct203 o - 0.13 0.03 enes. It is probably an uncommon, but not rare' CaO o - 0,16 o,13 0.76 2.09 serpentinite mineral. TiO2 o - o.o5 0.03 0.04 sio2 24.4L - 29.36 28.37 46.65 42.L5 Physicaland crystallographicproperties - 0.56 o.79 Atzol o 1.5o o.27 Balangeroite is found as brown, rigid and brittle 9.9:b rg.r7 13.04 "zo xyloid fibers that are either loose, or compact when Total 100.00 100.28 100.38 in large quantities, and may run severalcentimeters in the [001] direction. They have a vitreous-greasy |. fulfunge^nae - Mittlnax E we,ighfa 6otL 16 elec.tn-onnLctu- luster and are only transparentin thin section. Even ptabe o.wl4te.r, StanlatlAt oLLvine, gd.,Lneldnd hM fibers with a very small cross-sectionare composite pqnoxenL'. (Fig. 1) and usually intergrown with chrysotile; one 2. Ba,LlvtgeJwi.te- Ave.u4e 2 weigh.t. or more {hlc0}cleavages are very good. The physical - (19361 3. Xr/loLi.te Avutge 06 4 araLgsu bg Coil2dne . aspect of the material makes optical measurements 4. Mel*xi..te - Avena4e 06 4 eMIqLu bq Ca.illdtte 11936l; difficult and imprecise. The mineral is definitely thi.t aathatt't anoltlti.t No. 12 i.t excLuded beutue o( i.il lange Mo0^ content. anisotropic and shows distinct pleochroism, being o dark brown and yellow brown parallel and perpen- A no.Lin ruz') iul' = z.tt ha,r been de.duee.d[a.on we.t wa,trtAu. dicular to [001] respectively.By comparisonwith b oi56*n*o tt ,OOq $ee tertl . gageite(see below), balangeroiteshould be biaxial, but, because of its texture, only one refractive index value, 1.680(5),has been observed perpendic- Cailldre (1936). Both display optical properties close to those of the serpentine minerals and a xyloid aspect(Cailldre, 1936). The new mineral, balangeroite,is namedafter the locality where it was discovered. The name and the specieshave been approved by the LM.A. Commis- sion on New Minerals and Mineral Names. Paragenesis Balangeroite occurs as brown asbestiform fibers in a paragenesis with long-fiber slip chrysotile, magnetite, and native Fe-Ni; it is relatively abun- dant in the schistoseserpentinite at the contact with the unproductive Balangero serpentinite. Other as- sociated minerals are metamorphic olivine, chlo- rite, Ti-clinohumite, diopside, antigorite, and opaqueores; calcite, aragonite,opal, chalcedony, and clays are usually found in the serpentinite fractures. Fig. |. SEM view ofa typical fiber of balangeroite. COMPAGNONI ET AL,: BALANGEROITE 217 ular to [001]; practically the same value has been of water is proved by the large IR absorption found in the elongation direction. A density of around 35CI cm-r (Fig. 3). The high temperatureof 2.98(3)g/cm3 was measuredwith a torsion balance. dehydration suggeststhat there exists more OH- The [001] rotation X-ray photographs give c than H2O in the structure.