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Yofortierite crystals
Photo by Violet Anderson
© Royal Ontario Museum
Yofortierite crystal
© Doug Merson
Yofortierite crystals
© Doug Merson
(Mn,Mg)Si20(OH) · 8-9H
Yofortierite was described from Mont Saint-Hilaire in 1975. It is the manganese analog of palygorskite.
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Color ranges from pink to pale violet, violet and brown.
Luster is silky to dull.
Diaphaneity is translucent.
Crystal System is monoclinic; Pn(?).
Crystal Habits include matted aggregates of random or radiating
capillary and fibrous crystals to 3cm and fibrous masses.
Cleavage not observed.
Fracture is elastic.
Hardness is 2.5
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.2 g/cm
Streak is pale pink.
Associated Minerals include aegirine, albite, analcime, eudialyte,
lorenzenite, mangan-neptunite, microcline, natrolite, nepheline,
polylithionite, rhodochrosite and sérandite.
Distinguishing Features: Crystal habit and color.
Origin: Named in 1975 after Yves Oscar Fortier (b. 1914),
Director of the Geological Survey of Canada.
CLASSIFICATION:
Dana System
# 74.3.1a
Strunz Classification
# VIII/H.33-30
REFERENCES:
CanMin 13:68-74 (1975), MinRec 21:347 (1990), Dana 8:1560 (1997)
DISTRIBUTION AND RARITY AT MONT SAINT-HILAIRE:
MSH
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Yofortierite crystals
© Stephan Wolfsried
Yofortierite crystals
© Stephan Wolfsried
Yofortierite crystals
© Elmar Lackner