Muonionalustaite, Ni3(OH)4Cl2·4H2O, a new mineral formed by terrestrial weathering of the Muonionalusta iron (IVA) meteorite, Pajala, Norrbotten, SwedenShow others and affiliations
2021 (English)In: GFF, ISSN 1103-5897, E-ISSN 2000-0863, Vol. 143, no 1, p. 1-7Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Muonionalustaite, ideally Ni3(OH)4Cl2·4H2O, is a new mineral species (IMA 2020-010), found as a terrestrial weathering product of the Muonionalusta iron meteorite, in a fragment excavated 1.5 km NE of Lake Kitkiöjärvi. Muonionalustaite occurs in cavities of corrosion crust, associated with taenite, goethite, maghemite, amorphous Fe-Ni oxy-hydroxides and soil mineral particles. The mineral is green in colour and transparent. It occurs as lath-like crystals up to ca. 5 μm, elongated along [010] and flattened on {001}, forming aggregates and thin crusts. The calculated density and overall refractive index are 2.67(1) g·cm-3 and 1.68, respectively. An empirical formula from point analyses is (Ni2.88Fe0.02S0.02Al0.01Si0.01)Σ2.94(OH3.73Cl2.27)Σ6.00·4H2O. The crystal structure was refined in the space-group C2/m from powder X-ray diffraction data to RBragg = 3.55%. The monoclinic unit-cell parameters are a = 15.018(3) Å, b = 3.1490(6) Å, c = 10.502(3) Å, β = 101.535(15)º and V = 486.62(19) Å3 for Z = 2. Muonionalustaite is isostructural with the synthetic compounds Ni3(OH)3.9Cl2.1·4H2O and Mg3(OH)4Cl2·4H2O. The strongest X-ray diffraction lines are [I(%), d(Å), hkl]: 100, 10.30, 001; 67, 5.49, 201; 31, 3.868, 202; 30, 7.36, 200 and 25, 2.409, 60-2. Raman spectra show prominent bands at 3624, 3612, 3571 and 3507 cm-1, respectively, related to O–H-stretching vibrations of OH- groups, and in the region 450–530 cm-1 representing metal–O(H) vibration modes.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2021. Vol. 143, no 1, p. 1-7
Keywords [en]
Muonionalustaite, new mineral, nickel chloride, meteorite weathering, corrosion, Muonionalusta, Kitkiöjärvi
National Category
Geology
Research subject
The changing Earth
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:nrm:diva-4444DOI: 10.1080/11035897.2020.1858342OAI: oai:DiVA.org:nrm-4444DiVA, id: diva2:1617909
2021-12-082021-12-082021-12-09Bibliographically approved