THE MINERAL MACPHERSONITE


Macphersonite is named for a mineralogist at the Royal Scottish Museum, namely Harry Gordon Macpherson. It was named as recently as 1984. Macphersonite is a cousin of the more well known although still scarce leadhillite. The two minerals are dimorphs. A dimorph is a mineral that shares the exact same chemistry with another mineral, but their structures are different (di in latin means two and morph in latin means shape). Typically the different structures make the symmetries different as well. In this case, macphersonite is an orthorhombic mineral while leadhillite is monoclinic in symmetry. There actually is another mineral that has the same chemistry and a different structure from these two. The mineral is called susannite and is trigonal in symmetry. This makes macphersonite, leadhillite and susannite a complete set of trimorphs. All three minerals could be classified as sulfates due to their sulfate ion, but are here classified as carbonates due to the greater number and therefore more significance of the carbonate ions.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

 

Google
 

Copyright ©1995-2008 by Amethyst Galleries, Inc.
Site design & programming by galleries.com web services