Amazonite: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry, and Typomorphism

Amazonite: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry, and Typomorphism Mikhail Ostrooumov Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Michoacan of San Nicolas of Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON • NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO • SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Elsevier Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, UK 225 Wyman Street, Waltham, MA 02451, USA Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This English language edition is a translation of original Russian language edition titled Амазонский камень, ISBN 978-5-7325-0675-4 Copyright notice: © Издательство “Политехника“, 2008. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 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To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN: 978-0-12-803721-8 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress For Information on all Elsevier publications visit our website at http://store.elsevier.com/ Cover photo: Amazonite open pit on the Ploskaya Mountain, Western Keivy, Kola Peninsula, Russia. Photo: Natalia A. Pekova, 1996. From archives by Igor V. Pekov. Preface This book is the synthesis of amazonite mineralogical investigation and the latest results of modern studies of this famous mineral in their most sophisticated aspects. vii The first edition of this monograph Amazonit( , [Nedra Publishing House, 1989]) became a bibliographic rarity a few years after its publication. Therefore the author, M.N. Ostrooumov, has prepared a second edition of the volume, which takes into account the latest data and introduces a number of necessary addi- tions and corrections to the previous version. Amazonite has been the subject of a significant quantity of research that treats its various attributes: crystal chemistry, properties, conditions of formation, genesis, prospecting significance, and others. However, there is no exhaustive publication that offers a comprehensive review of the aforementioned questions while providing an insightful analysis of the often contradictory research opinions on amazonite. The goal of this work is to provide a full consideration of amazonite that includes information useful in theory and in practice to specialists from a wide variety of fields. In particular, at present it is very important to discuss the practical prob- lem about the use of amazonite in prospecting for deposits of rare metals and rare-earth elements (REE). The present research is based on the materials collected by Ostrooumov et al. [47] at multiple amazonite deposits in Russia and other countries, the analysis of a multitude of published sources on all known aspects and occurrences of this mineral, and the results of experimental studies. The fieldwork conducted by Ostrooumov et al. [47] has covered virtually every significant amazonite deposit and occurence in the Kola Peninsula, the Urals, Kazakhstan, Eastern Siberia, Transbaikal, Karelia, Central Asia, and Ukraine, as well as a range of deposits in Brazil, India, Canada, Mexico, Mongolia, USA, and other countries. The goal of the conducted laboratory research was to obtain the fullest possible description of crystal chemical features and properties of amazonite. In addi- tion to the usual mineralogical and petrographic research methods (studies of hand specimens and thin sections), Ostrooumov et al. [47] employed a variety of special methods including optical spectrometry in wide spectral range, colo- rimetry, vibrational spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), X-ray diffraction, X-ray, photo- and thermoluminescence, heat treatments, and X-ray irradiation experiments. viii Preface Full wet chemical analysis, partial X-ray fluorescence analysis, and optical spec- trographic analysis of amazonite and associated potassium feldspars were per- formed in the following Russian and international laboratories: A.P. Karpinsky Russian Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI), PGO Sevzapgeologia, MNTK Mekhanobr, Ilmen State Nature Reserve, Ukraine Academy of Sciences Institute of Geochemistry and Mineral Physics, Mineralogical Institute (Mainz University, Germany), Materials Institute (University of Nantes, France), Geological Insti- tute (Mexico National University) and Institute of Earth Sciences (University of Michocan de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Morelia, Mexico). In preparing the revised second edition of this monograph, M.N. Ostrooumov conducted additional research of amazonite in the aforementioned laboratories of the German, French, and Mexican universities, including but not limited to Raman spectroscopy, EPR, and X-ray irradiation. The comprehensive approach to the studies of amazonite represented in this monograph was made possible largely by the cooperative efforts of Russian and international specialists working in various areas of mineralogy, who had researched various aspects of this mineral in previous years. This second edition has been prepared in its entirety by M.N. Ostrooumov, who also prepared for publication the first edition of this volume in 1989. As the author of the present edition (Preface, Introduction, Chapters 1–6, and Conclu- sion), M.N. Ostrooumov would like to express his gratitude to the following colleagues for their cooperation in the preparation of the second edition: the collaboration with A.N. Platonov (Sections 4.4.2 and 5.1) and V.A. Popov (Sec- tions 2.4 and 4.1) has been most fruitful. The author is much obliged to all of the organizations that assisted in bringing the second edition of this work up to a new level on par with the latest achievements in mineralogy: the National Min- eral Resources University in St Petersburg, Ilmen Nature Reserve (Russia), Mainz University (Germany), University of Nantes (France), University of Michoacan de San Nicolas de Hidalgo (Mexico), and others. Introduction Amazonite is a mineral that has attracted scientific attention for generations and has been studied by prominent geologists including A. des Cloiseaux, N.I. Koksharov, V.I. Vernadsky, A.E. Fersman, V.M. Goldschmidt, and A.N. Zavaritsky. ix The history of amazonite discovery and scientific research is rich in riddles, par- adoxes, misconceptions, and presuppositions. The time and place of the first amazonite finding is heavily debated even today. The very name of the mineral seems paradoxical, as there have been no known amazonite fields in the Amazon River basin. Evaluations of the mineral’s significance remain quite con- troversial [1, 2, 23]. Despite more than two centuries of research history and innumerable papers dedicated to amazonite, it continues to draw the attention of geologists and mineralogists. What are the reasons for this continuing interest in amazonite? The most noticeable aspect for any geologist encountering amazonite in the field or in the lab is certainly the mineral’s color: a rich palette of blue and green, characteristic of such rare and precious gems as turquoise, malachite, emerald, and aquamarine. However, this beautiful mineral with a color unique for a semiprecious stone has attracted the attention of a wide range of specialists mainly thanks to the discovery that it is not as rare as had been supposed previously. Amazonite is a variety of potassium feldspar, a group of minerals extremely widespread in the Earth’s crust. But it is due to its color that amazonite stands out among other potassium feldspars. Scientists have undertaken numerous attempts to understand and decipher the nature of this mineral’s color. A wide variety of opinions have successively replaced one another as new characteristics of amazonite composition, crystal chemistry, and properties were discovered. In the last decades, the tendency has been to connect the chemical and structural characteristics of amazonite, and yet there is no hypothesis that would account for the diversity of its properties and crystal chemistry. Until

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