Inesite is a

hydrous In chemistry, a hydrate is a substance that contains water or its constituent elements. The chemical state of the water varies widely between different classes of hydrates, some of which were so labeled before their chemical structure was underst ...

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar t ...

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy u ...

silicate

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...

. Its chemical formula is Ca₂Mn₇Si₁₀O₂₈(OH)₂•5(H₂O). Inesite is an

inosilicate Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, ) is usually consi ...

with a

triclinic crystal system 180px, Triclinic (a ≠ b ≠ c and α ≠ β ≠ γ ) In crystallography, the triclinic (or anorthic) crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. A crystal system is described by three basis vectors. In the triclinic system, the crystal is ...

. It has a

Mohs hardness The Mohs scale of mineral hardness () is a qualitative ordinal scale, from 1 to 10, characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals through the ability of harder material to scratch softer material. The scale was introduced in 1812 by the ...

of 5.5 to 6, and a

specific gravity Relative density, or specific gravity, is the ratio of the density (mass of a unit volume) of a substance to the density of a given reference material. Specific gravity for liquids is nearly always measured with respect to water (molecule), wa ...

of 3.0. Its name originates from the Greek Ίνες (), "fibers" in allusion to its color and habit.

Occurrence and distribution

Inesite occurs in

hydrothermal Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

replacement deposits of

-rich

metamorphic rocks Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock ( protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, cau ...

and serpentines.The Mineral Inesite
/ref> It was first described in 1887 at Hilfe Gottes Mine, Oberscheld,

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-Dutch holiday road ...

, Dillenburg District, Hesse, Germany. Outside of the

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

, there are several notable localities of inesite, such as:http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM53/AM53_1614.pdf Inesite From the Broken Hill Lode, New South Wales, Australia *

Wessels Wessels is a Dutch and Low German patronimic surname, where it was originally a Norman Viking surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Albert Wessels (1908–1991), South African industrialist *André Weßels (born 1981), German fencer ...

and N'Chwanning Mines, Kalahari Manganese Field, Northern Cape, South Africa where Inesite is associated with

datolite Datolite is a calcium boron hydroxide nesosilicate, Ca B Si O4(O H). It was first observed by Jens Esmark in 1806, and named by him from δατεῖσθαι, "to divide," and λίθος, "stone," in allusion to the granular structure of the mass ...

pectolite Pectolite is a white to gray mineral, Na Ca2 Si3 O8(O H), sodium calcium hydroxide inosilicate. It crystallizes in the triclinic system typically occurring in radiated or fibrous crystalline masses. It has a Mohs hardness of 4.5 to 5 and a specif ...

apophyllite The name apophyllite refers to a specific group of phyllosilicates, a class of minerals. Originally, the group name referred to a specific mineral, but was redefined in 1978 to stand for a class of minerals of similar chemical makeup that compris ...

ruizite Ruizite is a sorosilicate mineral with formula Ca2Mn2Si4O11(OH)4·2H2O. It was discovered at the Christmas mine in Christmas, Arizona, and described in 1977. The mineral is named for discoverer Joe Ana Ruiz. Description and occurrence Ruizite is ...

, orientite and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

. *

Broken Hill Broken Hill is an inland mining city in the far west of outback New South Wales, Australia. It is near the border with South Australia on the crossing of the Barrier Highway (A32) and the Silver City Highway (B79), in the Barrier Range. I ...

, New South Wales, Australia. *

Långban Långban is a mining area in Värmland in Sweden. It belongs to Filipstad Municipality, with the nearest city being Filipstad, 21 km south. It was systematically mined through 1711-1972, but has traces from the 15th century. It is the birth ...

, Persberg, Värmland, Sweden. * Kawazu Mine,

Shizuoka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,637,998 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Prefecture to the north ...

, Chubu Region, Honshu Island, Japan * Hale Creek Mine, Trinity County, California, USA, where Inesite is associated with

Rhodochrosite Rhodochrosite is a manganese carbonate mineral with chemical composition MnCO3. In its (rare) pure form, it is typically a rose-red color, but impure specimens can be shades of pink to pale brown. It streaks white, and its Mohs hardness varies bet ...

, bementite, and

hausmannite Hausmannite is a complex oxide of manganese containing both di- and tri-valent manganese. The formula can be represented as Mn2+Mn3+2O4. It belongs to the spinel group and forms tetragonal crystals. Hausmannite is a brown to black metallic min ...

. * Fengjishan Mine (Daye Copper Mine), Edong Mining District,

Daye County Daye () is a county-level city in eastern Hubei province, China. It is under the administration of the Huangshi prefecture-level city. As it is usually the case with county-level cities, Daye includes both an urban core and a fair amount of rural ...

, Huangshi Prefecture, Hubei Province, China.

References

{{reflist Manganese(II) minerals Inosilicates Triclinic minerals Calcium minerals Minerals in space group 2