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THB Avterican Mtxeralocist THB AvtERICAN MtxERALocIST JOURNAL OF THE MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA Vol. 49 JUL\'-AUGUST, 1964 Nos. 7 and 8 BUDDINGTONITE, AN AMMONIUM FELDSPAR WITH ZEOLITIC WATER1 Rrcn,lno C. Ent, DoNaro E. Wnrro, Josorn J. Faunv eNo Dower-o E. Lno, U. S. Geol,ogicolSurttey, Menlo Park, Calif ., and' Wash'ington,D' C. Arsrn,q.ct Buddingtonite, the first ammonium aluminosilicate found in nature, occurs in Quater- nary andesite and older rocks hydrothermally altered by ammonia-bearing hot-spring waters below the water table at the Sulphur Bank quicksilver mine, Lake county, cali- fornia. Typicaliy, it occurs as compact masses pseudomorphous after plagioclase, and as crystals as much as 0.05 mm diameter lining cavities. Buddingtonite is biaxial (*), a:1.530,0:1'531, r:1.534 all *0'002,2V not de- terrnined,X/1a:4',2:b,Y Ac:19'. H 5+, G2.32+0.01- Chemical analysis of purest separate gave: SiOz,63.80;A1:Or, 19.16; FezOe, 1'85; MgO' 0.21; CaO,0.04; BaO, 0.26; NarO, 0.06; KzO, 0.62; (NHr)rO, 7.95;TiO2,0.99; HzO-, 0'88; HzO+,3.28; S, 1.59;total 100.69(-O+S):100.10 per cent. Buddingtonite is monoclinic; P21or P21fm;a:8.571,b:13.032,c:7.187,A:ll2o44' !l'; a:b:c:0.658:1:0.551; cell volume, 7+0.42fu;ceil contents4[NHdISirOs'1/2HzO]; calculated density, 2.38s gcm-3. From 370" to 430. c, buddingtonite is the ammonium analogue of monoclinic K-feld- spar; below about 370' C with normal atmospheric moisture, buddingtonite adsorbs zeo- Iitic water. The new mineral is named for ProfessorEmeritus Arthur F. Buddington' INrnorucrroN During a recent study of the major hot-spring mercury ore deposit at Sulphur Bank, Lake County, California (White and Roberson, 1962), White found an abundant hydrothermal mineral with an r-ray pattern similar to that of the hydrothermal K-feldspar that commonly replaces intermediate plagioclasein many hot-spring systemsthat are closelyasso- ciated with volcanism(White, 1955;Sigvaldason and White, 1961,1962). I{owever, hydrothermal K-feldspar had not been found previously in close association with mercury deposits, and experimental work by Hemley (1959)on the KzO-AlzOrSiOrHzO system had shown that for- mation of K-feldspar is favored by high proportions of potassium to hy- 1 Publication authorized by the Director, U. S. Geological Survey. 831 832 R. C. ERD, D. E. WIIITE, T. J. FAHEY AND D. E. LEE drogenions and by high temperature;the hot-spring system now active at Sulphur Bank is relativeiy low in temperature,and the waters have a relatively low proportion of potassium to hydrogen ions. rf the mineral in question was indeed K-feldspar, major changes in temperature and water compositionwith time wereindicated. selective staining of the altered rocks for K-feldspar and chemical analysis,proved that potassium was indeed a minor component. An r-ray spectrometer analysis of pyroxene andesite almost completely replaced by the unknown mineral revealed a small amount of iron and traces of other elementsbut failed to indicate any major cation. Becausethe pres- ent thermal waters have the maximum known proportions of ammonium and boron to the major cations of normal thermal and mineral waters, Roberson (white and Roberson, 1962,p. a0g) searchedqualitativery for both components and found that ammonium was abundant, but boron was minor. rn spite of the recognizedfeldspar-like properties of the new mineral (White and Roberson, 1962, p. 409), it was tentatively assignedto the zeolite group becauseof its associatedwater, confirmed chemically. rt is now classifiedas a feldspar with zeolitic water, in view of the data pre- sentedin this report. The mineral is named in honor of Professor Emeritus Arthur F. Bud- dington, Department of Geology,Princeton University. The name should be pronouncedbtd.ding.tdn.it. The mineral name has been approved by the commission on new minerals,rnternational Mineralogical Associa- tion. OccunnBNcr' Details of occurrenceare describedby White and Roberson(1962); in summary, buddingtonite occurs near and below the water table of an active, hot-spring system as a hydrothermal replacement of a euaternary andesite lava flow and older rocks. rn one drill hole, the mineral extends below this water table to depths of about 400 feet, where present temper- aturesare about 100oC. (White and Roberson,1962, p. 419). Only small amounts of the mineral were found in cuttings at greater depths in the same drill hole, and these amounts could have been derived by contami- nation from higherlevels. A seconddeep hole drilled late in 1961and com- pleted at a depth of 1,390feet provided cuttings only from depths below 1,100feet. In spite of the fact that the cuttings contain pyrite and some other evidenceof hydrothermal alteration, no trace of buddingtonite was found in whole-rock r-ray diffraction patterns. rn specimenscoliected in the early 1880'sby G. F. Becker from the old Herman Shaft (seereview by White and Roberson, 1962,p. 409), buddingtonite occursin abun- BUDDINGTONITE 833 that elsewhere by buddingtonite. All mercury-bearing ore specimens asso- have been tested contain buddingtonite except where cinnabar is rocks at and immediately above the former water ciated with acid-leached -widely table of the hot-spring system. Buddingtonite, however, is more sys- distributed than cinnabar on the borders at moderate depths of the tem. OnrcrN identical chargesand similar ionic radii. Buddingtonitemayoccurelsewhereinenvironmentsrelativelyhigh Ngawha' in ammonium. The mercury-depositing hot-spring system of 834 R. C. ERD, D. E. WHITE, I. T. FAHEI' AND D. E. LEE waters. rt is also likely to occur where ammonium is abundantly avail- able from organic activity of various kinds. CnvsratrocRApHy data, and proceedsto obtain the set of parametersthat best fits the ob- refined unit-cell parameters with their approximate standard errors is given in Table 2. Table 1 contains the d-spacingscalculated from these refined unit-cell parameters and the observedd-spacings. The agreement is good. posure times of approximately 100 hours. The hk\,\kl, lkl, hhl, and,hkh reciprocal lattice nets were photographed.The condition limitinorrrurLr"- theL'(r possiblereflections is 0k0:k : 2n so that p21 the space group is either or p21f m. Tabre 2lists the unit-cell data obtained by the single-crystai techniques. The agreement with the data obtained by least-squares refinement of the r-ray powder data is satisfactory. BUDDINGTONITE 835 T.mr,n 1. X-Rnv DrlrnectroN Dlta ron BrmptNcroxtrr AND FoR SvNrnnrrc K-Frr-nsPln Calculatedr Observed Buddingtonite Sulphur Bank mine, K-feldspar Lake County2 (High sanidine, synthetic)3 California I hkI d.nxt shkl hkl 100 7.9r 110 6.76 6.75 16 6.65 110 001 6.63 020 6.52 6.52 96 6.51 020 T01 6.45 011 5.91 <()1 5 .869 111 111 5.78 120 5.03 021 4.65 12l 4.59 101 4.32 4.33 4.241 50 201 20r 4.18 111 4.10 111 2rr 3 .98 3.98 JJ 3.947 20 200 3.95 3.87 3B 200 130 3.81 3.81 100 3 .789 80 130 2lo 3.78 031 3 .63 3.63 t2 3.623 15 T31 131\ 3.60 3.60 111| I02 3.59 22r 3.52 3.557 12 221 1r2 3.462 3.462 23 3 .459 50 1r2 2ZO 3.380 3.381 72 3.328 100 220 202 002 3.314 J . Jl4i J+ 3.287 60 040 3 .258 3.258 62 3.258 35 040 (continuedon next Page) 1 All calculated spacings listed for dr,*l)2.500. Indices from least-squares refinement of x-ray powder data by David B. Stewart and Daniel E. Appleman (Table 2) using digital computer program (Evans, et al.,1963)' , Split oi analyzed sample DW-1. X-ray difiractometer data are: Chart X-2501; Cu/Ni radiationtrCuK":1.5418A;aluminumpowderusedasinternalstandard;scannedatlo per minute from 10 90o20. Faint lines due to FeSz, anatase, and ammoniojarosite(?), have been omitted. 3 X-ray Powder Data File card 10-353. 836 R. C. ERD, D. E. WHIT:E, I. J. FAHEY AND D. E. LEE Ttsr-n l-(continued) Calculatedr Observed Buddingtonite Sulphur Bank mine, K-feldspar Lake Countyz (High sanidine, synthetic)a California I lkhI hkl 202 3.227 3.225 o12 3 212 122 3.145 212 J. IJZ 3.129 IJI 3.064 140 3.012\ 3.014 2.995 50 231 3.or1l 022 2.954 2.954 201 2.933 2.932 041\ 2.924 23ol 222 r41 2.908 2.910 20 2.905 041 222 ).asr 2.894 15 2.889 022 2ll 2 861 2.862 9 301 2.857 311 2.790 132 2.768 2.767 2.766 IJ t32 r02 2.707 221 2.675 712 2.650 2.650 300\ 032J 2.635 32r 2.616 302 2.612 r4l 2.602 2.604 2.608 12 3t2 232 2.590 (ctr 310 2.583 2.582 30 241 2.569 \;; 3t2 2.56r 240 2.514 2.5r5 l1 Z.+JL 12 2.38r 7 2.3t9 o z.ltJ 28 2.r71 208 060 2.r51 8 2.058 6 1.989 8 (continud on nert page) BUDDINGTONITE 837 Tmrr l-(continueil) Calculatedl Buddingtonite Sulphur Bank mine, K-feldspar Lake County2 (High sanidine, synthetic)g California hkl | 979 R t.9+7 3 1.859 7 1.802 13 |.797 L9 1.759 o 1.654 6 1.6t4 4 plus additional lines all with Il10 plus additional lines Morphotogy. Most buddingtonite is anhedral and cryptocrystalline, but some tiny euhedral crystals up to 0.05 mm line cavities and cracks.
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