Epidote
Encyclopedia
Epidote is a calcium
aluminium
iron
sorosilicate
mineral
, Ca2Al2(Fe3+;Al)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), crystal
lizing 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. The faces are often deeply striated and crystals are often twinned. Many of the characters of the mineral vary with the amount of iron present for instance, the color, the optical constants, and the specific gravity. The color is green, grey, brown or nearly black, but usually a characteristic shade of yellowish-green or pistachio-green. It displays strong pleochroism
, the pleochroic colors being usually green, yellow and brown. Clinozoisite
is white or pale rose-red variety containing very little iron, thus having the same chemical composition as the orthorhombic mineral zoisite
. The name is derived from the Greek word "epidosis" (επίδοσις) which means "addition."
Epidote is an abundant rock-forming mineral, but one of secondary origin. It occurs in marble
and schist
ose rocks of metamorphic
origin. It is also a product of hydrothermal alteration of various minerals (feldspar
s, mica
s, pyroxene
s, amphibole
s, garnet
s, and others) composing igneous rocks. A rock composed of quartz
and epidote is known as epidosite
. Well-developed crystals are found at many localities: Knappenwand, near the Großvenediger
in the Untersulzbachthal in Salzburg, as magnificent, dark green crystals of long prismatic habit in cavities in epidote schist, with asbestos
, adularia, calcite
, and apatite
; the Ala valley and Traversella in Piedmont; Arendal in Norway
; Le Bourg-d'Oisans
in Dauphiné
; Haddam in Connecticut
; Prince of Wales Island in Alaska
, here as large, dark green, tabular crystals with copper
ore
s in metamorphosed limestone.
The perfectly transparent, dark green crystals from the Knappenwand and from Brazil
have occasionally been cut as gemstones.
Belonging to the same isomorphous group with epidote are the species piemontite
and allanite
, which may be described as manganese
and cerium
epidotes respectively.
Piemontite occurs as small, reddish-black, monoclinic crystals in the manganese mines at San Marcel, near Ivrea in Piedmont, and in crystalline schists at several places in Japan
. The purple color of the Egypt
ian porfido rosso antico is due to the presence of this mineral.
Allanite and dollaseite-(Ce)
have the same general epidote formula and contain metals of the cerium group. In external appearance allanite differs widely from epidote, being black or dark brown in color, pitchy in lustre, and opaque in the mass; further, there is little or no cleavage, and well-developed crystals are rare. The crystallographic and optical characters are similar to those of epidote; the pleochroism is strong with reddish-, yellowish-, and greenish-brown colors. Although not a common mineral, allanite is of fairly wide distribution as a primary accessory constituent of many crystalline rocks, gneiss
, granite
, syenite
, rhyolite
, andesite
, and others. It was first found in the granite of east Greenland
and described by Thomas Allan in 1808, after whom the species was named. Allanite is a mineral readily altered by hydration, becoming optically isotropic and amorphous: for this reason several varieties have been distinguished, and many different names applied. Orthite was the name given by Jöns Berzelius in 1818 to a hydrated form found as slender prismatic crystals, sometimes a foot in length, at Finbo, near Falun in Sweden
. Dollaseite is less common, famous from the Ostanmossa mine, Norberg district, Sweden
.
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 gray 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 member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
sorosilicate
Silicate minerals
The silicate minerals make up the largest and most important class of rock-forming minerals, constituting approximately 90 percent of the crust of the Earth. They are classified based on the structure of their silicate group...
mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...
, Ca2Al2(Fe3+;Al)(SiO4)(Si2O7)O(OH), 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. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...
lizing 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. The faces are often deeply striated and crystals are often twinned. Many of the characters of the mineral vary with the amount of iron present for instance, the color, the optical constants, and the specific gravity. The color is green, grey, brown or nearly black, but usually a characteristic shade of yellowish-green or pistachio-green. It displays strong pleochroism
Pleochroism
Pleochroism is an optical phenomenon in which a substance appears to be different colors when observed at different angles with polarized light.- Background :Anisotropic crystals will have optical properties that vary with the direction of light...
, the pleochroic colors being usually green, yellow and brown. Clinozoisite
Clinozoisite
Clinozoisite is a mineral, a complex sorosilicate of calcium and aluminium and is usually a grey green colour.Its formula is Ca2Al3[O|OH|SiO4|Si2O7]....
is white or pale rose-red variety containing very little iron, thus having the same chemical composition as the orthorhombic mineral zoisite
Zoisite
Zoisite is a calcium aluminium hydroxy sorosilicate belonging to the epidote group of minerals. Its chemical formula is Ca2Al3O...
. The name is derived from the Greek word "epidosis" (επίδοσις) which means "addition."
Epidote is an abundant rock-forming mineral, but one of secondary origin. It occurs in marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
and schist
Schist
The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...
ose rocks of metamorphic
Metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock is the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form". The protolith is subjected to heat and pressure causing profound physical and/or chemical change...
origin. It is also a product of hydrothermal alteration of various minerals (feldspar
Feldspar
Feldspars are a group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals which make up as much as 60% of the Earth's crust....
s, mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
s, pyroxene
Pyroxene
The pyroxenes are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many igneous and metamorphic rocks. They share a common structure consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra and they crystallize in the monoclinic and orthorhombic systems...
s, amphibole
Amphibole
Amphibole is the name of an important group of generally dark-colored rock-forming inosilicate minerals, composed of double chain tetrahedra, linked at the vertices and generally containing ions of iron and/or magnesium in their structures.-Mineralogy:...
s, garnet
Garnet
The garnet group includes a group of minerals that have been used since the Bronze Age as gemstones and abrasives. The name "garnet" may come from either the Middle English word gernet meaning 'dark red', or the Latin granatus , possibly a reference to the Punica granatum , a plant with red seeds...
s, and others) composing igneous rocks. A rock composed of quartz
Quartz
Quartz is the second-most-abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2. There are many different varieties of quartz,...
and epidote is known as epidosite
Epidosite
Epidosite is a highly altered epidote and quartz bearing rock. It is the result of slow hydrothermal fluid alteration of basalt that occurs below the black smokers within mid-oceanic ridge spreading centers. Similar altered rocks have been identified within ophiolite complexes and associated...
. Well-developed crystals are found at many localities: Knappenwand, near the Großvenediger
Großvenediger
Großvenediger is generally considered to be Austria's fourth highest mountain...
in the Untersulzbachthal in Salzburg, as magnificent, dark green crystals of long prismatic habit in cavities in epidote schist, with asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
, adularia, calcite
Calcite
Calcite is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate . The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite at 380-470°C, and vaterite is even less stable.-Properties:...
, and apatite
Apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually referring to hydroxylapatite, fluorapatite, chlorapatite and bromapatite, named for high concentrations of OH−, F−, Cl− or Br− ions, respectively, in the crystal...
; the Ala valley and Traversella in Piedmont; Arendal in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
; Le Bourg-d'Oisans
Le Bourg-d'Oisans
Le Bourg-d'Oisans is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.It is located in the Oisans region of the French Alps. Le Bourg-d'Oisans is located in the valley of the Romanche river, on the road from Grenoble to Briançon, and on the south side of the Col de la Croix de Fer...
in Dauphiné
Dauphiné
The Dauphiné or Dauphiné Viennois is a former province in southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of :Isère, :Drôme, and :Hautes-Alpes....
; Haddam in Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
; Prince of Wales Island in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, here as large, dark green, tabular crystals with copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....
s in metamorphosed limestone.
The perfectly transparent, dark green crystals from the Knappenwand and from Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
have occasionally been cut as gemstones.
Belonging to the same isomorphous group with epidote are the species piemontite
Piemontite
Piemontite is a sorosilicate mineral in the monoclinic crystal system with the chemical formula Ca23O. It is a member of the epidote group....
and allanite
Allanite
Allanite is a sorosilicate group of minerals within the broader epidote group that contain a significant amount of rare earth elements. The mineral occurs mainly in metamorphosed clay rich sediments and felsic igneous rocks...
, which may be described as manganese
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
and cerium
Cerium
Cerium is a chemical element with the symbol Ce and atomic number 58. It is a soft, silvery, ductile metal which easily oxidizes in air. Cerium was named after the dwarf planet . Cerium is the most abundant of the rare earth elements, making up about 0.0046% of the Earth's crust by weight...
epidotes respectively.
Piemontite occurs as small, reddish-black, monoclinic crystals in the manganese mines at San Marcel, near Ivrea in Piedmont, and in crystalline schists at several places in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. The purple color of the Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian porfido rosso antico is due to the presence of this mineral.
Allanite and dollaseite-(Ce)
Dollaseite-(Ce)
Dollaseite- is a sorosilicate end-member epidote mineral, with the formula CaREE+3Mg2AlSi3O11F, where cerium is the dominant rare earth element . It also includes lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, and gadolinium, and since cerium is the dominant REE, it is placed in the name and...
have the same general epidote formula and contain metals of the cerium group. In external appearance allanite differs widely from epidote, being black or dark brown in color, pitchy in lustre, and opaque in the mass; further, there is little or no cleavage, and well-developed crystals are rare. The crystallographic and optical characters are similar to those of epidote; the pleochroism is strong with reddish-, yellowish-, and greenish-brown colors. Although not a common mineral, allanite is of fairly wide distribution as a primary accessory constituent of many crystalline rocks, gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...
, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, syenite
Syenite
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or present in relatively small amounts Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock of the same general composition as granite but with the quartz either absent or...
, rhyolite
Rhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
, andesite
Andesite
Andesite is an extrusive igneous, volcanic rock, of intermediate composition, with aphanitic to porphyritic texture. In a general sense, it is the intermediate type between basalt and dacite. The mineral assemblage is typically dominated by plagioclase plus pyroxene and/or hornblende. Magnetite,...
, and others. It was first found in the granite of east Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
and described by Thomas Allan in 1808, after whom the species was named. Allanite is a mineral readily altered by hydration, becoming optically isotropic and amorphous: for this reason several varieties have been distinguished, and many different names applied. Orthite was the name given by Jöns Berzelius in 1818 to a hydrated form found as slender prismatic crystals, sometimes a foot in length, at Finbo, near Falun in Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
. Dollaseite is less common, famous from the Ostanmossa mine, Norberg district, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
.