Schäferite is a rare vanadate mineral with chemical formula Ca₂NaMg₂ O₄sub>3. Schäferite is isometric, which means that it has three axes of equal length and 90° angles between the axes.Verlagsbuchhandlung, E.S. (1999) Schäferite, a new vanadium garnet. Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie,1, 123-134. Schäferite is isotropic, meaning that the velocity of light is the same no matter which direction the light passes through. It was named after Helmut Schäfer (born 1931) who discovered it in a quarry on the Bellerberg Volcano in Germany. It is found only in the Eifel Mountains volcanic area near

Mayen Mayen () is a town in the Mayen-Koblenz, Mayen-Koblenz District of the Rhineland-Palatinate Federal State of Germany, in the eastern part of the Volcanic Eifel Region. As well as the main town, additional settlements include Alzheim, Kürrenberg, ...

Laacher See Laacher See (), also known as Lake Laach or Laach Lake, is a volcanic Volcanic crater lake, caldera lake with a diameter of in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, about northwest of Koblenz, south of Bonn, and west of Andernach. It is in the Eifel ...

district of

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It occurs within a

xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock (geology), rock fragment (Country rock (geology), country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusi ...

in a

leucite Leucite (from the Greek word ''leukos'' meaning white) is a rock-forming mineral of the feldspathoid group, silica-undersaturated and composed of potassium and aluminium tectosilicate KAlSi2O6. Crystals have the form of cubic icositetrahedra b ...

tephrite. It is the magnesium analogue of palenzonaite and is a member of the garnet structural group.

References

Calcium minerals Magnesium minerals Sodium minerals Vanadate minerals Cubic minerals Minerals in space group 230 Garnet group {{mineral-stub