In 1926 schultenite from Tsumeb, Otavi, South-West Africa, was described as a new mineral by L. J. Spencer and related to the compound PbHAsO4. The specimen on which the original description was based is still unique in the British Museum collection and was used for the present study. There appears to be no record in the literature that the mineral has been discovered in any other locality

For the X-ray examination rather small fragments (less than 0·1 × 0·05 mm.) were broken from pieces of crystals since all the available crystals were too large and the material has a high absorption to X-rays. Single crystal rotation, oscillation, and Weissenberg photographs in 6-cm. diameter cameras with Cu-Kα radiation as well as Laue photographs (crystal-plate distance 4 cm.) with tungsten radiation were used to derive the unit-cell dimensions and space-group.

The south-eastern margin of the Glen Tilt complex consists of a long strip of diorites with a number of small associated patches of rocks of appinitic type. Xenoliths, both of hornblendite and hornblendeschist, the latter belonging to the Perthshire series of the Dalradian, are found enclosed within the dioritic rocks, which range petrographically from diorite to quartz-mica-diorite. In all these rocks hornblende is the most important fcrromagnesian constituent always predominating over pyroxene in the basic members and frequently persisting to the exclusion of biotite in the intermediate rocks of the intrusion. The hornblendes were examined chemically because of the difficulty of estimating their composition even from a thorough optical investigation. As they play such an important role in the complex it is considered that they may give some indication of the history and mode of formation of the rocks in which they occur. Such a chemical investigation of a series of related hornblendes will also indicate the possible range of composition of common amphiboles within the diorites and related rocks of a single complex.

The classification of framework structures built from chains of four-membered rings of type UUDD is incomplete: there are two basic ways in which the chains can be cross-linked to form eight-membered rings. The first type of frame-work (already described) is extremely flexible, permitting the cavities to be either large or small; the second type is inflexible and the cavities are small. Feldspar belongs to the second type and had been incorrectly ascribed to the first type: paracelsian, harmotome, and gismondine had been correctly placed in the first group.

In October 1945 Count Taaffe, a brilliant if unorthodox Dublin gemmologist, in the course of examining a motley collection of gemstones, came across a small mauve stone which puzzled him greatly. The stone had the appearance, and most of thc characters, of spinel, but afforded clear evidence of double refraction. As recounted below, this stone was later found to belong to an entirely new mineral species-—the only case hitherto known where a mineral has been first encountered as a faceted gem.

Two monoclinic pyroxenes from the Skaergaard Halvoen intrusion, Kangerdlugssuak, East Greenland, have been separated and analysed. They occur in a strongly differentiated gabbro complex which ranges from a hypersthene-olivine-gabbro at the base to a fayalite-quartz-gabbro of unique composition at the top. The differentiation has proceeded with a steady increase in iron and a corresponding decrease in magnesia, while the other major oxides remain relatively constant throughout. The clinopyroxenes in the lower horizons are in equilibrium with labradorite, normal olivine and hypersthene, and are fairly normal varieties as shown by the following optical properties:—

1. (1) … α 1·672, β 1·678, γ 1·701, 2V 42°, γ: c 39°, sp. gr. 3·34.

2. (2) … α 1·695, β 1·702, γ 1·722, 2V 43°, γ: c 41° sp. gr. 3·38.

The behaviour of the zeolites on dehydration, and their capacity for absorbing other gases and vapours in place of the water removed, have formed the subject of numerous investigations, qualitative and quantitative, of various degrees of accuracy. In only a few cases have attempts been made to fit an equation to the experimental data. Of these equations, those proposed by O. Weigel, G. F. Hüttig, and O. Schmidt are quite inadequate, as is readily seen by a trial with the more extensive data now available. On the other hand, E. Rabinowitsch derived an equation which proved capable Of reproducing the experimental data and is very similar to the equation now proposed, but derived in a quite different way.

Nearly boron-free kornerupine is locally abundant in pods or lenses of coarse-grained, non-foliated, Mg- and Al-rich rocks that occur at high metamorphic grades in early Proterozoic metapelitic rocks from the Reynolds Range, Northern Territory, Australia. This is the third reported occurrence of boron-free kornerupine worldwide. The samples consist almost entirely of coarse-grained kornerupine and its breakdown products sapphirine, cordierite, and gedrite or orthopyroxene. The kornerupine contains only 0.45 wt.% B2O3, corresponding to 0.098 B atoms per 22 (O, OH), and closely approximates 11:10:11 in terms of molar ratios of (MgO + FeOtotal):Al2O3:SiO2, with XMg = Mg/(Mg + Fetotal) = 0.874. The unusual textures and bulk compositions of the rocks in the pods are interpreted to have resulted from metasomatism and high-grade metamorphism (750 to 800° and ∼ 4.5 kbar) of precursors that may have included sedimentary Mg-rich clays. Rocks containing boron-poor, and relatively boronrich kornerupine (2.18 wt.% B2O3; XMg = 0.892) are separated in outcrop by as little as 10 m of the foliated cordierite-quartzite country rock and other rock types, suggesting that the compositions or amounts of the metasomatic fluids varied on a local scale.

The new mineral stefanweissite, IMA2018-020, was discovered in sanidinite volcanic ejecta from the Laach Lake (Laacher See) paleovolcano, Eifel region, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Associated minerals are sanidine, nosean, biotite, augite, titanite, ferriallanite-(La), magnetite, baddeleyite and a pyrochlore-group mineral. Stefanweissite is brown and reddish-brown, with adamantine lustre; the streak is light brown to yellow. It forms long-prismatic crystals up to 0.03 mm × 0.07 mm × 1.0 mm and acicular crystals up to 2 mm long and 0.02 mm thick typically combined in radiated aggregates in cavities in sanidinite. Dcalc. = 5.254 g/cm3. The mean refractive index calculated from the Gladstone–Dale equation is 2.260. The Raman spectrum shows the absence of hydrogen-bearing groups. The chemical composition is (electron microprobe, wt.%): CaO 7.63, MnO 2.51, FeO 7.86, Al2O3 0.25, La2O3 2.28, Ce2O3 6.54, Pr2O3 1.01, Nd2O3 1.59, ThO2 3.71, UO2 1.09, TiO2 17.32, ZrO2 28.03, HfO2 0.91, Nb2O5 19.96, total 99.69. The empirical formula based on 14 O atoms per formula unit is Ca1.13(Ce0.33La0.12Nd0.08Pr0.05)Σ0.58Th0.12U0.03Mn0.29Fe0.91Al0.04Zr1.89Hf0.04Ti1.80Nb1.19O14. The simplified formula is (Ca,REE)2Zr2(Nb,Ti)(Ti,Nb)2Fe2+O14. Stefanweissite is orthorhombic, with space group Cmca. The unit-cell parameters are: a = 7.2896(4) Å, b = 14.1435(5) Å, c = 10.1713(4) Å and V = 1048.68(7) Å3. The crystal structure was solved using single-crystal X-ray diffraction data. Stefanweissite is an analogue of zirconolite-3O with Nb dominant over Ti in one of two octahedral sites. The strongest lines of the powder X-ray diffraction pattern [d, Å (I, %) (hkl)] are: 2.983(100)(202), 2.897(71)(042), 1.828(38)(154, 400, 333), 1.793(25)(244), 1.767(16)(080), 1.517(10)(282), 1.187(19)(483, 1.11.3, 602). Type material is deposited in the collections of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, with the registration number 5191/1.

Olivine composition can be rapidly and accurately obtained by using standard (Straumanis-mounting) 57·3 mm X-ray powder cameras. A determinative curve based on analysed natural olivines has been constructed by plotting the mol. % Fo against the spacing of back-reflection line 174. The regression equation for the composition range Fo100 to Fo30 is

Fo (mol. %) = 4151·46−3976·45 d174

using Fe-Kα1 radiation. The fayalite end (Fo30 to Fo0) of the determinative curve shows a relatively sharp break from a straight-line relationship of d-spacing versus composition. Practical applications of the determinative curve are briefly presented.

Rocks containing a high percentage of potash feldspar are described for the first time from the Toror Hills in the Karamoja district of eastern Uganda. They include feldspathic fenites, intrusive feldspathic fenite-breccias, potashtrachytes, and orthoclasites. Petrographic data and chemical analyses show the close similarity in composition of these rocks despite their widely differing textures and modes of occurrence. The potash metasomatism associated with the emplacement of carbonatite, and the subsequent mobilization of these feldspathic fenites are compared with similar phenomena observed at other carbonatite centres. The problem of the mechanism of mobilization is discussed.

Tables are given which enable a quick estimate to be made of the true thickness of kamacite plates from measurements of the Widmanstetter figure on a single random plane. The method is applied to the following meteorites (width in mm following name): Arispe, 2·90; Brenham, 0·91; Duketon, 1·13; Henbury, 0·74; Ogallala, 1·53; Thule, 0·89; View Hill, 0·62.

In situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments were used to study the effect of trace amounts of a commercial inhibitor on the (001) baryte surface during growth. The additive tested was a copolymer, used as a scale inhibitor in oil recovery (maleic acid/allyl sulfonic acid copolymer with phosphonate groups, partial sodium salt). The morphology of the growth was used to gain a better understanding of the inhibition mechanism. Without an inhibitor, barium sulfate growth occurred by 2D island nucleation and spreading. The addition of a small amount (0.1 ppm and 0.5 ppm) of copolymer inhibitor enhances 2D nucleation but blocks growth. Just 1 ppm of inhibitor blocks nucleation and growth by adsorption of a copolymer layer onto the baryte surface. Similarly in 3D studies, small amounts of inhibitor seem to act on growth and not on nucleation and larger amounts of copolymer act on both by adsorption of the copolymer to all baryte surfaces keeping the particles in their embryo stage.

The elastic and structural behaviour of dehydrated analcime in compression in a non-penetrating medium up to 3 GPa was studied in a diamond anvil cell using in situ synchrotron powder diffraction. A first-order phase transition at 0.4–0.7 GPa is accompanied by a symmetry change from monoclinic (I2/a) to pseudo-rhombohedral (R3) due to trigonalization of the aluminosilicate framework. This is due to the migration of cations to new positions close to the 6-membered rings forming the channels. The reduction of the mean aperture of the structure-forming 6- and 8-membered rings, as a result of tetrahedral tilting, leads to a 7.5% reduction in volume at the phase transition. The bulk modulus values are 38(2) GPa for the low pressure (LP) phase [fitted with a Murnaghan equation of state, K' = 4 (fixed)] and 11(4) GPa for the high pressure (HP) phase [fitted with a third-order Birch–Murnaghan equation of state, K' = 9(1)]. The elastic behaviour of the LP phase is anisotropic, with compressibilities βa:βb:βc in the ratio 1:4:2; the most compressible direction b coinciding with the orientation of empty 8-membered rings. The compressibility of the HP phase is isotropic. Trigonalization appears to be the most effective (and probably unique) mechanism of radical volume contraction for the ANA structure type.

Four relatively intense and broad absorption bands centred at ∼12500, ∼19500, ∼21500 and ∼23000 cm–1 were recorded in polarized electronic single-crystal spectra of natural, optically uniaxial and pleochroic hydrogarnets with henritermierite contents ranging from 35 to 97 mol.%. These absorption bands arise from spin-allowed electronic d-d transitions in trivalent Mn located at the axially distorted six-coordinated site of the tetragonal hydrogarnet structure.

The crystal field stabilization energy (CFSE) for trivalent Mn at the Mn site, as derived from band energies, is ∼185 kJ/mol. This considerably higher CFSE for Mn3+ in tetragonal hydrogarnets as compared to cubic garnets (130 –145 kJ/mol) explains the natural occurrence of close to end-member tetragonal Mn3+-hydrogarnets while only limited Mn3+-substitution is observed in natural cubic garnets.

The fact that incorporation of Mn3+ at intermediate concentrations stabilizes the tetragonal hydrogarnets indicates the potential natural existence of a number of new, partially Mn3+-substituted, hydrogarnets, e.g. tetragonal Mn3+-bearing ‘hydroandradite’.

Aurivilliusite, ideally Hg2+Hg1+OI, is monoclinic, C 2/c, with unit-cell parameters refined from X-ray powder data: a= 17.580(6), b= 6.979(1), c= 6.693(3)Å, β = 101.71(4)°, V = 804.0(5)Å3, a:b:c= 2.5190:1:0.9590,Z = 8. The strongest six lines of the X-ray powder-diffraction pattern [din Å (I )(hkl)] are: 8.547(70)(200), 3.275(100)(002), 2.993(80)(21), 2.873(80)(600), 2.404(50b)(02, 421, 22) and 1.878(50)(23). This extremely rare mineral was collected from a small prospect pit near the longabandoned Clear Creek mercury mine, New Idria district, San Benito County, California, USA. It is intimately intermixed with another new undefined Hg-O-I phase (‘CCUK-15’), and is also closely associated with native mercury, cinnabar and edgarbaileyite in a host rock principally composed of quartz and magnesite. Aurivilliusite occurs in a cm-wide quartz vein predominantly as irregular-shaped thin patches ‘splattered’ on the quartz surface; patches vary in size from 10–20 μm up to 0.5 mm. The only known subhedral platy brightly reflecting crystal fragment, with major ﹛100﹜ form and distinct ﹛100﹜ cleavage, did not exceed 0.2 mm in longest dimension. The mineral is dark grey-black with a dark red-brown streak. Physical properties include: metallic lustre; opaque; non-fluorescent; brittle; uneven fracture; calculated density 8.96 g/cm3 (empirical formula), 8.99 g/cm3 (ideal formula). In polished section in plane-polarized reflected light, aurivilliusite resembles cinnabar, is extremely light sensitive, shows twinning and no internal reflections, and exhibits an unusual ‘red light’ coalescing phenomena. Averaged and corrected results of electron-microprobe analyses yielded HgO 40.10, Hg2O 38.62, I 22.76, Br 0.22, Cl 0.06, sum 101.76, less O = I + Br + Cl –1.46, total 100.30 wt.%, corresponding to Hg1.002+Hg1.001+ O1.01(I0.97Br0.01Cl0.01)Σ0.99, based on O + I + Br + Cl = 2 atoms per formula unit (a.p.f.u.). The original value for Hg, 74.27 wt.%, was partitioned in a HgO:Hg2O ratio of 1:1 after the discovery of the crystal-structure paper dealing with the synthetic equivalent of aurivilliusite. The mineral name is in honour of the late Dr Karin Aurivillius (1920 –1982), chemistcrystallographer at the University of Lund, Sweden, for her significant contributions to the crystal chemistry of Hg-bearing inorganic compounds. Aurivilliusite is related chemically to terlinguaite, Hg2+Hg1+OCl, but has a different structure and X-ray characteristics.

Fluoronyböite, ideally NaNa2(Al2Mg3)(Si7Al)O22F2, has been found in the Jianchang eclogite pod, Su-Lu coesite-eclogite province, China. It has been approved as a new mineral by the IMA. Single-crystal structure refinement and electron microprobe analysis were used for characterization: C2/m, with a = 9.666(4), b = 17.799(6), c = 5.311(2) Å, β = 104.10(3)º, V = 886.2(8) Å3, Z = 2, formula: A(Na0.78K0.06)Σ0.84B(Na1.53Ca0.47)Σ2.00C(Fe2+0.89Mg2.55Mn0.01Zn0.01Fe3+0.32Al1.21Ti0.01)Σ5.00T(Si7.14Al0.86)Σ8.00O22X(OH0.84F1.16)Σ2.00.

Fluoronyböite formed during UHPM conditions, and is preserved in the retrograded kyanite-bearing eclogite sample DJ102 together with clinopyroxene (Jd70Ae20Di10), garnet (Alm60Prp21Grs17Sps02), and rutile. Lower-pressure minerals are also present (fluoro-alumino-magnesiotaramite, apatite, paragonite), and symplectitic rims were also developed around clinopyroxene crystals. Cation ordering and the structural and physical properties of fluoronyböite are reported and discussed with reference to those of F-free nyböite from the type locality at Nyböin Norway, for which some as yet unpublished mineral data are also reported. Relations between composition and petrogenetic conditions of these rare high-pressure amphiboles are discussed.

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy can be used to measure the ionization energies of electrons in both valence band and core orbitals. As core vacancies are the initial states for X-ray emission, a knowledge of their energies for all atoms in a mineral enables all the X-ray spectra to be placed on a common energy scale. X-ray spectra are atom specific and are governed by the dipole selection rule. Thus the individual bonding roles of the different atoms are revealed by the fine structure of valence X-ray peaks (i.e. peaks which result from electron transitions between valence band orbitals and core vacancies). The juxtaposition of such spectra enables the composition of the molecular orbitals that make up the chemical bonds of a mineral to be determined.

Examples of this approach to the direct determination of electronic structure are given for silica, forsterite, brucite, and pyrite. Multi-electron effects and developments involving anisotropic X-ray emission from single crystals are also discussed.

Oscillatory zoning in solid solutions of alums ((K,NH4)Al(SO4)2·12H2O, K(Al,Cr)(SO4)2·12H2O, (K,Rb)Al(SO4)2·12H2O) and nitrates of divalent metals ((Sr,Pb)(NO3)2, (Ba,Pb)(NO3)2) grownfrom low-temperature aqueous solutions is considered. The zoning is detected by means of X-ray diffraction topography, crystal optics and electron probe microanalysis and involves variations of the crystal composition and degree of the growth ordering of atoms. The zoning patterns are very different in the predominant ﹛111﹜ and ﹛1̄11﹜ and subordinate ﹛100﹜ and ﹛110﹜ growth sectors. The different types of micromorphological instabilities of a growing face are suggested to explain the origin of the observed zoning.