Zoisite

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Zoisite

Zoisite is a calcium

Calcium

Calcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the earth's Crust ....
aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....
hydroxy

Hydroxy

'Hydroxy' can refer to:* In chemical nomenclature, the prefix "hydroxy-" shows the presence of a hydroxyl functional group * An abbreviation for the medication hydroxyzine, which is commonly sold under the brand names Atarax, Ucerax, Serecid, and Vistaril....
sorosilicate

Silicate minerals

The silicate minerals make up the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals, comprising approximately 90 percent of the crust of the Earth....
belonging to the epidote

Epidote

Epidote is a calcium aluminium iron Silicate minerals mineral, Ca2Al2O, crystallizing in the monoclinic system. Well-developed crystals are of frequent occurrence: they are commonly prismatic in habit, the direction of elongation being perpendicular to the single plane of symmetry....
group of mineral

Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through Geology processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties....
s. Its chemical formula

Chemical formula

A chemical formula is a way of expressing information about the atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound, and how the relationship between those atoms changes in chemical reactions....
is Ca

Calcium

Silicon

Silicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855....
O

Oxygen

Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
₄)(Si₂O₇)O(OH

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the chemical symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly combustion and explosive Diatomic molecule gas with the molecular formula H2....
). Zoisite is named after the Slovene

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north....
scientist Baron Sigmund Zois von Edelstein

Baron Sigmund Zois von Edelstein

Sigmund Zois Freiherr von Edelstein, usually referred as Sigmund Zois was a Carniolan nobleman, natural scientist and patronage....
(Žiga Zois), who realized that this was an unknown mineral when it was brought to him by the mineral dealer Simon Prešern, who had discovered it in the Saualpe mountains (Svinška planina) of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia

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Encyclopedia

Zoisite is a calcium

Calcium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....
hydroxy

Hydroxy

Silicate minerals

The silicate minerals make up the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals, comprising approximately 90 percent of the crust of the Earth....
belonging to the epidote

Epidote

Mineral

Chemical formula

Calcium

Silicon

Silicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. The atomic mass is 28.0855....
O

Oxygen

Hydrogen

Slovenia

Baron Sigmund Zois von Edelstein

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was part of the Holy Roman Empire from 976 until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806, and a crownland of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918....
in 1805. Zoisite was first known as saualpite, after its type locality. Transparent material is fashioned into gemstone

Gemstone

A gemstone or gem, also called a precious or semi-precious stone, is a piece of attractive mineral, which — when cut and polished — is used to make jewellery or other adornments....
s while translucent-to-opaque material is usually carved into sculptural works. The latter is sometimes shot through with ruby crystals, which are completely opaque and unsuited to use as gems, yet are well colored and contrast strikingly against the green matrix of the zoisite.

Zoisite occurs as prism

Prism (geometry)

In geometry, an n-sided prism is a polyhedron made of an n-sided polygon base, a Translation copy, and n faces joining corresponding sides....
atic, orthorhombic (2/m 2/m 2/m) crystal

Crystal

A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions....
s or in massive form, being found in metamorphic

Metamorphic rock

Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form"....
and pegmatitic

Pegmatite

Pegmatite is a very coarse-grained igneous rock that has a grain size of 20 mm or more; such rocks are referred to as pegmatitic.Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspar and mica; in essence a "granite"....
rock. Zoisite may be blue to violet, green, brown, pink, yellow, gray, or colorless. It has a vitreous luster

Lustre (mineralogy)

Lustre is a description of the way light interacts with the surface of a crystal, rock , or mineral. For example, a diamond is said to have an adamantine lustre and pyrite is said to have a metallic lustre....
and a conchoidal to uneven fracture

Fracture

A fracture is the separation of an object or material into two, or more, pieces under the action of stress .The word fracture is often applied to bones of living creatures, or to crystals or crystalline materials, such as gemstones or metal....
. When euhedral, zoisite crystals are striated parallel to the principal axis (c-axis). Also parallel to the principal axis is one direction of perfect cleavage

Cleavage (crystal)

Cleavage, in mineralogy, is the tendency of crystalline materials to split along definite Crystallography structural planes. These planes of relative weakness are a result of the regular locations of atoms and ions in the crystal, which create smooth repeating surfaces that are visible both in the microscope and to the naked eye....
. Zoisite is somewhat higher than 6 in hardness and its specific gravity

Specific gravity

Specific gravity is defined as the ratio of the density of a given solid or liquid substance to the density of water at a specific temperature and pressure, typically at 4?C and , making it a dimensionless quantity ....
is between 3.10 - 3.38, depending on the variety. Zoisite streaks white and is said to be brittle. Clinozoisite

Clinozoisite

Clinozoisite is a mineral, a complex sorosilicate of calcium and aluminium and is usually a grey green colour. Its formula is Ca2Al3SiO4Si2O7O....
is a more common monoclinic polymorph

Polymorphism (materials science)

Polymorphism in materials science is the ability of a solid material to exist in more than one form or crystal structure. Polymorphism can potentially be found in any crystalline material including polymers, minerals, and metals, and is related to allotropy, which refers to chemical elements....
of zoisite.

Sources of zoisite include Tanzania

Tanzania

Tanzania , officially the United Republic of Tanzania , is a country in East Africa that is bordered by Kenya and Uganda on the north, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the west, and Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique on the south....
(tanzanite

Tanzanite

Tanzanite is the blue/purple variety of the mineral zoisite which was discovered in the Meralani Hills of Northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha....
), Kenya

Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
(anyolite

Anyolite

Anyolite is considered a variety of the mineral zoisite. Found in Kenya and Tanzania, anyolite is actually a metamorphic rock composed of intergrown green zoisite, black hornblende, and ruby....
), Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe that occupies the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula....
(thulite

Thulite

Thulite is an opaque, massive pink manganese rich variety of the mineral zoisite. Thulite is often mottled with white calcite and occurs as veins and fracture fillings transecting many types of rock....
), Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
, Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
, India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located in South Asia and borders Central Asia and the Middle East. It has a 1,046 kilometre coastline along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman in the south, and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and People's Republic of China in th...
, and Washington

Washington

Washington is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute....
in the USA.

Zoisite

See also