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Cabochon is a gem cutting term referring to a gemstone cut so as to have a domed upper surface. Formerly the term refered to gems which were polished, but were uncut.
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Cabrerite, named after the Sierra Cabrera, Spain, is an apple-green mineral, a hydrous arsenate of nickel, cobalt, and magnesia.
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Cacholong or mother-of-pear opal and sometimes Kalmuck agate, is a variety of opal, usually grey in colour, milk white or bluish white, and resembling mother-of-pearl. It is banded with layers of different colours and is a most attractive ornamental stone.
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Cacoxene is a hydrous phosphate of iron occurring in yellow radiated tufts. The phosphorus seriously injures it as an iron ore.
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Cadmia is an oxide of zinc which collects on the sides of furnaces where zinc is sublimed. The name was formerly applied to the mineral calamine.
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Cairngormstone is a yellow or smoky brown variety of rock crystal, or crystallized quartz, found especially around the mountain of Cairngorm, in Scotland.
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Calamine is the common name of two zinc ores - one being a hydrous silicate also known as smithsonite, hemimorphite, or electric calamine; the other being the carbonate. Both occur frequently in veins which carry zinc blende, the commonest of the zinc ores. They are pale yellow, pink, brown, blue, green or colourless and are often mixed in a fine powder known to miners as ' dry bone'. Calamine is used in medicine as a skin soother to relieve rashes and other skin irritations.
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Calaverite is a bronze-yellow massive mineral with metallic lustre; a telluride of gold. It was first found in Calaveras County, California.
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Calc-sinter or calcareous tufa is a loose and porous deposit of carbonate of lime, formed by mineral or petrifying springs. Water charged with carbonic acid can dissolve carbonate of lime out of the rocks, and on its emerging to the air, deposit part of it again in the form of an incrustation.
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Calcareous refers to containing calcium carbonate or calcite.
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Calcic refers to containing calcium.
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Calcite is a common mineral composing such rocks as chalk and marble. It has the formulae CaCO3 and a relative hardness of 3. It effervesces vigorously with HCl. Clear specimens exhibit double refraction. Occurs as widespread sedimentary rock masses such as limestone. Crystalline metamorphosed limestones are called marbles. Argentine is a pearly lamellar variety; aphrite is foliated or chalklike; dogtooth spar, a form in acute rhombohedral or scalenohedral crystals; calc- sinter and calc-tufa are lose or porous varieties formed in caverns or wet grounds from calcareous deposits; agaric mineral is a soft, white friable variety of similar origin; stalactite and stalagmite are varieties formed from the drillings in caverns. Iceland spar is a transparent variety, exhibiting the strong double refraction of the species, and hence is called doubly refracting spar.
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Caledonite is a hydrous sulphate of copper and lead, found in some parts of Caledonia (Scotland).
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Caliche is the name given to naturally occurring crude sodium nitrate found in Chile. Caliche contains from 20 to 50 per cent sodium nitrate and also traces of sodium iodate.
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The Cambrian period was the third geological period, 450,000,000 years ago.
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Canary stone is a yellow species of carnelian, named from its resemblance in colour to the plumage of the canary bird.
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Cancrinite, named after Count Cancrin, a minister of finance in Russia, is a mineral occurring in hexagonal crystals, also massive, generally of a yellow colour, containing silica, alumina, lime, soda, and carbon dioxide.
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Candite is a variety of spinel, of a dark colour, found at Candy, in Sri Lanka.
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Cannel Coal is a dull black coal which breaks with a conchoidal fracture and does not soil the fingers when handled. In some respects it resembles jet. It is easily cut, and will take a high polish. It contains a large proportion of volatile constituents making it suitable for gas manufacture, and it burns with a bright white flame.
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Carbonaceous refers to composed chiefly of organic carbon. (i.e. carbon derived from plant and animal remains.)
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Carbonado is a black variety of diamond, found in Brazil, and used for diamond drills. It occurs in irregular or rounded fragments, rarely distinctly crystallized, with a texture varying from compact to porous.
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Carbonates refers to minerals, such as calcite, where the carbonate radical (CO3) is an important constituent.
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The Carboniferous was the seventh geological period, 250,000,000 years ago. This era marked the formation of the coal beds.
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Carbuncle is a beautiful gem of a deep red colour (with a mixture of scarlet) . It was called by the Greeks anthrax and is found in the East Indies. When held up to the sun, it loses its deep tinge, and becomes of the colour of burning coal. The name belongs for the most part to ruby sapphire, though it has been also given to red spinel and garnet.
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Carminite is an arsenate mineral of a striking red colour formed in veins of iron and lead ore. Carminite was identified as a distinct mineral in 1850.
Carminite is a readily soluble compound of arsenic acid, oxygen, lead and iron.
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Carnallite is a light mineral found in marine evaporate deposits. It is a source of potassium compounds and magnesium. Carnallite has a bitter salty taste and easily absorbs water. It has the formulae KMgCl3ù6H2O and a relative hardness of 3.
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Carnelian is a clear red chalcedony, a semi-precious gemstone, consisting of quartz with iron impurities which give it a translucent red colour.
Carnelian is found mainly in Brazil, Japan and India.
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Carnotite is an ore of uranium and vandium. Found in sand, sandstones and around petrified trees. Probably formed as a deposition from meteoric waters. It is strongly radioactive and has the formulae K2(UO2)2(VO4)2ù 3H2O and a relative hardness of 1.
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Cassiterite is the principal ore of tin. It is widely distributed in small amounts but commercially available in only a few localities. It is frequently associated with wolframite. Native tin dioxide, it is found occurring in tetragonal crystals of reddish brown colour, and brilliant adamantine lustre; also massive, sometimes in compact forms with concentric fibrous structure resembling wood ('wood tin')It is also found as rolled pebbles in placer deposits ('stream tin') but is usually found in veins associated with quartz, in or near granitic rocks. It has the formulae SnO2 and a relative hardness of 7.
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Castor is a variety of the mineral petalite, from Elba.
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Cat's eye is a variety of quartz or chalcedony, exhibiting opalescent reflections from within, like the eye of a cat. The name is given to other gems affording similar effects, especially chrysoberyl.
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Cawk is an opaque, compact variety of barite, or heavy spar.
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Celestite (also known as celestine) is a natural sulphate of strontium, so named from its occasional delicate blue colour. It occurs crystallized, also in compact massive and fibrous forms. Celestite is often found disseminated through limestone or sandstone, or lining cavities in such rocks. It is associated with calcite, dolomite, gypsum, sulphur, fluorite and is also found as a gangue mineral in lead veins. It is an important source of strontium and is used to prepare nitrate of strontium for fireworks and tracer bullets, and in the refining of beet sugar. It has the formulae SrSO4 and a relative hardness of 4.
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Cerargyrite is native silver chloride, a mineral of a white to pale yellow or grey colour, darkening on exposure to the light. It may be cut by a knife, like lead or horn (hence it is also called horn silver).
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Cerite is a mineral of a brownish of cherry-red colour, commonly massive. It is a hydrous silicate of cerium and allied metals.
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Cerolite is a hydrous silicate of magnesium, allied to serpentine, occurring in wax like masses of a yellow or greenish colour.
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Ceruleite is a sky-blue coloured arsenate mineral similar in appearance and hardness to turquoise first discovered in the Emma Louisa gold mine in Huanaco, Chile and confirmed as a distinct mineral in 1900.
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Cerussite (lead carbonate) is an important and widely distributed supergene lead ore formed by the action of carbonated waters on galena in the upper zone of lead veins. It is often found associated with galena and sphalerite. It has the formulae PbCO3 and a relative hardness of 4.
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Ceylanite (pleonaste) is a dingy blue, or greyish black, variety of spinel.
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Chabasite is a mineral occurring in glassy rhombohedral crystals, varying in colour from white to yellow or red. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.
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Chabazite is a complex hydrated calcium and sodium silicate mineral of secondary origin found lining cavities in volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks. It occurs as white to flesh-red crystals which vary from transparent to translucent and have a vitreous lustre. The crystals are rhombohedral. It has the formulae Ca(Al2Si4)O126H2O and a relative hardness of 5.
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Chalcanthite is native blue vitriol, a minor ore of copper found only in arid regions. It occurs near the surface in copper veins and is often deposited on iron from the water in copper mines. It is used in calico printing, insecticides and for industrial purposes. It has the formulae CuSO45H2O and a relative hardness of 3.
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Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline, translucent variant of quartz comprised of silica, having usually a whitish colour, and a lustre nearly like wax.
Chalcedony was named after Chalkedon, near Istanbul. It was traditionally used for decorative objects and amulets. It has a relative hardness of 7. When chalcedony is variegated with spots or figures, or arranged in differently coloured layers, it is called agate; and if by reason of the thickness, colour, and arrangement of the layers it is suitable for being carved into cameos, it is called onyx. Chrysoprase is green chalcedony; carnelian, a flesh red, and sard, a brownish red variety.
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Chalcocite is one of the most important copper ore minerals. It is native copper Sulphide and is also called copper glance, and vitreous copper. It is a mineral of a black colour and metallic lustre occurring primarily in enriched zones of sulphide deposits. It has the formulae Cu2S and a relative hardness of 3.
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Chalcopyrite, Copper pyrites, or yellow copper ore, is the most widely occurring copper mineral and one of the most important ore sources of that metal, also containing iron, and sulphur. It occurs massive and in tetragonal crystals of a bright brass yellow colour as an original constituent of igneous rocks, in pegmatic dikes, and in contact with metamorphic deposits. May carry gold or silver and become an ore of those metals. It has the formulae CuFeS2 and a relative hardness of 4.
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Chalcosine (chalcosite) is both a primary and a secondary mineral and an important copper ore. It is an opaque, dark grey mineral with a metallic lustre that was discovered in the 16th century. The copper, which makes up as much as 80 percent of the weight of the mineral may be easily extracted by smelting.
Chalcosine can be difficult to identify as it frequently occurs as a pseudomorph of other minerals - it replaces the other species atom by atom but leaves their original crystal shapes intact, resulting in a mineral that has the outward shape of the original mineral, but the chemical composition and structure of
chalcosine.
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Chalk is a pure soft limestone, opaque white, and usually formed by the accumulation of the shells of foraminifera together with those of larger marine organisms. Chalk is found in large quantities in land masses which were at one time covered by the sea. Chalk is composed of between 50 and 98 percent calcium carbonate and various of minerals including clay, hematite, mica, quartz and pyrite. Chalk is important in industry and is used in the manufacture of rubber goods, paint, putty, polishing powders, cement, as well as the familiar writing implements beloved by school teachers.
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Chalybite, spathic iron ore or spathose iron is an iron carbonate, yellowish-grey to brown in colour. It is a common gangue mineral in metalliferous veins found in the coal measures of England, the Lias beds of Yorkshire, in the USA and in Germany and other places, providing an important ore of iron.
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Chamosite is a usually dark green in colour mineral of the chlorite group named after the place where it was first discovered - Chamoson in the Swiss Alps.
Chamosite occurs mainly in compact, massive aggregates and is thought to have two different crystal forms. The accredited species has a monoclinic crystal, but the variant species, orthochamosite is orthorhombic.
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Charoite is a rare mineral resembling purple marble, found only along the Chary river in Russia, used as an ornamental stone and as a gem stone. Charoite has a relative hardness of 5.
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Chatoyant refers to a hard stone, such as the cat's-eye, which presents on a polished surface, and in the interior, an undulating or wary light.
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Chert (hornstone) is a mineral very similar to flint, but coarser and less uniform in colour. It is found principally in association with limestones, especially in the carboniferous limestone of Ireland where beds of it are found several hundred feet thick. It appears to have resulted from the solution and redeposition of the silica of certain kinds of fossils, particularly of sponges, with the pointed spicules of which it is often filled. Radiolarian chert is a streaky, dark-grey, brown or reddish rock which under the microscope is seen to consist of innumerable shells of Radiolaria firmly united together by a siliceous cementing material.
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Chessy copper or chessylite is the name given to the mineral azurite, found in fine crystallization at Chessy, near Lyons.
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Chiastolite (macle) is a variety of andalusite. The tessellated appearance of a cross section when it is sliced, is due to the symmetrical arrangement of impurities in the crystal.
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Childrentite is a brown or yellow coloured mineral with a vitreous lustre named after John Children, the English doctor and naturalist who helped to identify it, childrentite being confirmed as a distinct mineral species in 1823.
Childrentite is similar to eosphorite, but contains more iron than manganese.
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China clay is a fine, white amorphous powder formed as a result of the decomposition of granite.
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Chlorite is a mineral group whose members usually exhibit a characteristic green colour. The formula above is for 'green mica'. Distinguished from muscovite and green phlogopite by a lack of elasticity. It has the formulae (Mg,Fe)6(AlSi3)O10(OH)8 and a relative hardness of 3.
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Chlorite slate is a schistose or slatey rock consisting of alumina, iron, and magnesia.
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Chloropal is a massive mineral, greenish in colour, and opal-like in appearance. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of iron.
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Chlorophane is a variety of fluor spar, which, when heated, gives a beautiful emerald green light.
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A chondrite is a meteoric stone characterized by the presence of chondrules.
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Chondrodite is a common metamorphic mineral, a fluosilicate of magnesia and iron, yellow to red in colour, often occurring in granular form in a crystalline limestone in dolomitic marbles. It has the formulae (Mg,Fe)3 (SiO4)(OH,F)2 and a relative hardness of 7.
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Chondrules are peculiar rounded granules of some mineral, usually enstatite or chrysolite, found imbedded more or less abundantly in the mass of many meteoric stones, which are hence called chondrites.
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Chromite is a black sub-metallic mineral consisting of oxide of chromium and iron. It is slightly magnetic and the only ore of chromium. A common constituent of peridotite rocks and the serpentines derived from them. Also associated with corundum. One of the first minerals to separate from a cooling magma. Chromium is widely used in metal plating and in stainless steel. It has the formulae FeCr2O4 and a relative hardness of 6.
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Chrysoberyl is a mineral occurring in granite rocks, pegmatites, and in mica schists. It is frequently found in river sand and gravels. It serves as a gem stone: alexandrite and 'cats eye' which can be of great value. It has the formulae BeAl2O4 and a relative hardness of 9.
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Chrysocolla is a hydrous silicate of copper, occurring massive, of a blue or greenish blue colour. It is a minor ore of copper and a mineral of secondary origin, occurring in the oxidised zones of copper veins. It is associated with malachite, azurite, cuprite, native copper. It is named from two Greek words meaning 'gold' and 'glue'.
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Chrysolite is a mineral, composed of silica, magnesia, and iron, of a yellow to green colour. It is common in certain volcanic rocks and sometimes used as a gem. The name was also early used for yellow varieties of tourmaline and topaz.
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Chrysoprase is a green variety of chalcedony, coloured by nickel. When heated or exposed to sunlight the mineral often becomes paler, the colour being restored after exposure to moisture. It is a brittle mineral and is inclined to crack in cutting or setting.
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Chrysostom is a gem stone of beryllium aluminate.
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Cimolite is a soft, earthy, clayey mineral, of whitish or greyish colour.
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Cinnabar (vermilion) is a red crystalline form of mercuric sulphide. It has the formulae HgS and a relative hardness of 3. It often has a bright red colour. The only important source of mercury and it's found in few localities. Occurs as vein fillings near recent volcanic rocks and hot springs. Used in scientific equipment, in drugs, and with tin in silvering mirrors. Many other uses.
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Cinnamon stone is a variety of garnet, of a cinnamon or hyacinth red colour, sometimes used in jewellery.
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Cipolin is a whitish marble, from Rome, containing pale greenish zones. It consists of calcium carbonate, with zones and cloudings of talc.
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Clastic rock refers to a sedimentary rock comprised of fragments of pre-existing rocks that have been transported and deposited, for example sand.
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Clay refers to a soft sediment or deposit that is plastic when wet and comprised of very fine-grained materials (less than 0.004 mm in diameter), mainly hydrous aluminium silicates.
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Cleavage is the structural lines along which a mineral will break up when it is subjected to pressure, such as being struck a sharp blow.
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Cleavelandite, named after professor Parker Cleaveland, is a variety of albite, white and lamellar in structure.
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Cleveite is a uranium-containing mineral, of interest owing to the fact that when heated with dilute sulphuric acid it liberates considerable quantities of occluded helium. It was this property which first led to the discovery of the element helium.
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Clinochlore is a mineral of the chlorite group and occurs as colourless, white, yellow or green monoclinic crystals found in metamorphic rocks, particularly in schist.
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Clinozoisite is a hydrous silicate of calcium and aluminium mineral found mainly in regional metamorphic rocks and in smaller contact zones of altered limestone. It occurs in varied external appearances, prismatic, needle-like crystals, shapeless, granular or fibrous aggregates. It has the formulae Ca2Al3Si3O12(OH) and a relative hardness of 7.
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Coal is a rock formed from vegetable matter that has fallen to the ground, and then bean compressed and heated over a long period of time until it changes into the rock. Coal is an important fossil fuel.
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Cobaltite (cobalt glance) is an ore of cobalt consisting of a cobalt arsenosulphide of the formulae CoAsS and has a relative hardness of 6. It is usually found in high temperature deposits, disseminated in metamorphic rocks, or in vein deposits with other cobalt and nickel minerals.
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A cobble is a class of rock between 64 and 256 mm in diameter.
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Coccolite is a granular variety of pyroxene, green or white in colour.
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Coelestine is a mineral used in pyrotechnics and a s a source of strontium. Occasionally it is cut and used as a gem stone. It has a relative hardness of 3.5.
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Colemanite, named after W.T. Coleman of San Francisco, is a hydrous borate of lime occurring in transparent colourless or white crystals, also massive, in Southern California. It is a major source of borax and has a relative hardness of 5. It occurs in high temperature hydrothermal veins or disseminated in metamorphic rocks associated with other cobalt and nickel sulphides/arsenides.
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Cologne earth is an earth of a deep brown colour, containing more vegetable than mineral matter. The name is also given to an earthy variety of lignite, or brown coal.
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Colophonite is a coarsely granular variety of garnet.
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Coloradoite is mercury telluride, an iron-black metallic mineral, found in Colorado.
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Columbite is a mineral of a black colour, sub-metallic lustre, and high specific gravity. It is a niobate (or columbate) of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron, was first found in New England and is the main ore of niobium and tantalum. It shows a bluish iridescent fracture surface and is used in metallurgy to create heat-resistant alloys and in the rust proofing of stainless steel. It has the formulae (Fe,Mn)(Nb, Ta)2O6 and a relative hardness of 6.
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Concretion refers to an accumulation of mineral matter when mineral particles become cemented together into an orderly, rounded form.
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Condurrite is a variety of the mineral domeykite, or copper arsenide, from the Condurra mine in Cornwall, England.
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In geology, a conglomerate (popularly known as pudding-stone) is a coarse-grained sedimentary rock composed of rounded fragments embedded in a matrix of a cementing material such as silica.
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Conichalcite is a mineral of the adelite group, often brilliant green in colour, it is a secondary mineral that forms in the oxidation zones of copper ore bodies. It is often found as an encrustation on rocks composed mainly of limonite, where it is associated with adamite, azurite, bayldonite, linarite, malachite, olivenite and smithsonite. Conichalcite was confirmed as a distinct species of mineral in 1849 and is sometimes used as an ore of copper.
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Conite is a magnesian variety of dolomite.
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Connellite is a blue coloured mineral confirmed as a distinct species in 1850 and named after Arthur Connell, professor of geology at St Andrew's University, Scotland. Connellite is a secondary mineral, a hydrated copper chloride sulphate hydroxide, formed in the oxidation zones of copper deposits. Despite being a rare mineral, it is sometimes used as an ore of copper.
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Contact metamorphism refers to metamorphism resulting from the intrusion of magma which takes place at or near the contact point with the molten rock.
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Copper is one of the essential metals of modern civilization. Native copper is found in copper veins but copper sulphides are the principal source ores of the metal. It has the formulae Cu and a relative hardness of 3. Copper has several important physical properties, one of the main being its resistance to chemical attack.
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Copper barilla is native copper in granular form mixed with sand. It is an ore brought from Bolivia.
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Corallite is a mineral substance or petrifaction, in the form of coral.
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Cordierite is found as an accessory mineral in granite, gneiss, schists, and in contact metamorphic zones. Transparent specimens of good colour have been used as a gem stone. It has the formulae Mg2Al4Si5O18 and a relative hardness of 8.
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Cork fossil is a variety of amianthus which is very light, like cork.
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Cornetite is a rare, brittle, secondary mineral with a chemical composition similar to turquoise. Cornetite is formed in the weathered oxidation zones of copper sulphide ore bodies and is found in association with brochantite, chrysocolla, liberthenite, limonite, malachite and pseudomalachite. Cornetite was first discovered in 1912 and was confirmed as a distinct mineral in 1917, subsequently being named after the Belgian geologist Jules Cornet. Cornetite is a naturally occurring hydrous phosphate of copper, as is also turquoise.
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Corundum is a form of aluminium oxide common as an accessory mineral in metamorphic rocks and as an original constituent of certain igneous rocks. Pure corundum is colourless, but colour differences due to the presence of other elements give rise to several varieties of gem, notably, ruby and sapphire. The deep red ruby (corundum tainted with chromium) is one of the most valuable gems, second only to emerald and diamond. Sapphire is corundum tainted with titanium.
Corundum has the formulae Al2O3 and a relative hardness of 9.
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Covellite, named after its discoverer, Covelli, is an indigo-blue material found in most copper deposits, usually as a coating in the zone of sulphide enrichment. It has the formulae CuS and a relative hardness of 2.
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The Cretaceous was the eleventh geological period, 95,000,000 years ago, following the Jurassic and preceding the Eocene. The first marsupials evolved during this period.
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Cristobalite is a polymorph of trigonal quartz present in many siliceous volcanic rocks as a lining in cavities. Upon heating to 1470 C it becomes nearly transparent. On cooling it assumes its initial white translucent appearance. It has the formulae SiO2 and a relative hardness of 7. Cristobalite was confirmed as a distinct species of mineral in 1887 and named after the place where it was discovered - Cerro San Cristobal in Mexico.
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Crocidolite is a mineral occurring in silky fibres of a lavender blue colour. It is related to hornblende and is essentially a silicate of iron and soda. A silicified form, in which the fibres penetrating quartz are changed to oxide of iron, is the yellow brown tiger's-eye of the jewellers.
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Crocoite is a rare mineral found in the oxidized zones of lead deposits where lead veins have traversed rocks containing chromite. Not abundant enough to be of commercial value although it does contain chromium. It's name is Greek and means 'saffron', an allusion to its colour. It has the formulae PbCrO4 and a relative hardness of 3.
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Cronstedtite, named after the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt, is a mineral consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with a perfect basal cleavage.
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Cryolite is the fluoride of sodium and aluminium, it is found in Greenland in white cleavable masses often enclosing brown siderite and grey galena. It always occurs in pegmatites where it's probably a precipitate from fluoride rich solutions. It is used in the manufacture of sodium salts, certain kinds of glass and porcelain, and as a flux for cleaning metal surfaces. It has the formulae Na3AlF and a relative hardness of 3.
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Crystal refers to a solid mineral having a regular geometric shape and bounded by smooth flat surfaces (called crystal faces).
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Crystal symmetry refers to the repetitive pattern of crystal faces caused by the orderly internal arrangements of atoms within a mineral.
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Cubic Nitre (sodium nitrate, Chili Saltpetre) is a mineral found mainly in the Tarapaca district of Chile.
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Culm is a name given to mineral coal that is not bituminous especially when it is found in small masses or dust.
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Cuprite is the red oxide of copper and an important ore of copper. It is found in the upper oxidized portions of copper veins and is commonly found in isometric crystal forms, and also massive. It has the formulae Cu2O and a relative hardness of 4.
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Cyanosite is native sulphate of copper.
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Abbreviations
Rocks & Minerals
