Cahnite

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Cahnite (Cahnit in German, Cahnita in Spanish, Канит in Russian[1]) is a brittle white or colorless mineral that has perfect cleavage and is usually transparent. It usually forms tetragonal-shaped crystals and it has a hardness of 3 mohs.[2][3] Cahnite was discovered in the year 1921.[1] It was named Cahnite to honor Lazard Cahn, who was a mineral collector and dealer.[2] The geological environment that it occurs in is in pegmatites cutting a changed zinc orebody.[1][2][3] The chemical formula for cahnite is Ca2B[AsO4](OH)4.[3][4][5] It is made up of 26.91% calcium, 3.63% boron, 25.15% arsenic, 1.35% hydrogen, and 42.96% oxygen. It has a molecular weight of 297.91 grams.[3] Cahnite is not radioactive.[2] Cahnite is associated with these other minerals: willemite, rhodonite, pyrochroite, hedyphane, datolite, and baryte.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Mindat data sheet for Cahnite.
  2. ^ a b c d Mineral Data sheet for Cahnite.
  3. ^ a b c d Database entry from Mineral Collecting.
  4. ^ Database entry for Cahnite from Mincryst.
  5. ^ Database entry for Cahnite from Japanese database.
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