Chabazite-Ca is a very rare accessory mineral at Mont Saint-Hilaire. Formerly known as chabazite, the species has been recently analyzed as Chabazite-Ca according to the latest recommendations for zeolites from the International Mineralogical Association.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
- Color is usually colorless, white or tan.
- Luster is vitreous to dull to pearly.
- Diaphaneity is transparent to translucent to opaque.
- Crystal System is triclinic; R3m.
- Crystal Habits include rounded hexagonal plates, flakes, rosettes
and spherical aggregates of flakes; six-pointed stellate crystals
or groups. - Cleavage {101} is distinct.
- Fracture is uneven.
- Hardness is 4 – 5.
- Specific Gravity is approximately 2.0 g/cm3.
- Streak is white.
- Associated Minerals include aegirine, albite, analcime,
microcline and natrolite. - Distinguishing Features: crystal habit.
- Origin: Named in 1792 from the Greek chabazios, tune or melody,
one of twenty stones named in the poem Peri lithos, which
extolled the virtues of minerals.
| Dana class # | 77.1.2a.1 – Tectosilicates; zeolites; zeolite group |
| Strunz class # | VIII/J.26-30 – Silicates; tectosilicates (network), with zeolite-structure, bladed zeolites; zeolite group, willhendersonite – chabazite – perialite series |