Spertiniite

Spertiniite is a rare copper hydroxide mineral. Chemically it is copper(II) hydroxide with formula Cu(OH)2. It occurs as blue to blue green tabular orthorhombic crystal aggregates in a secondary alkaline environment altering chalcosite. Associated minerals include chalcocite, atacamite, native copper, diopside, grossular and vesuvianite.[2]

Spertiniite
Spertiniite from Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (size: 5 mm)
General
CategoryOxide mineral
Formula
(repeating unit)		Cu(OH)2
Strunz classification4.FD.05
Dana classification6.2.4.1
Crystal systemOrthorhombic
Crystal classPyramidal (mm2)
H-M symbol: (mm2)
Space groupCmc21
Unit cella = 2.95 Å, b = 10.59 Å
c = 5.27 Å; Z = 4
Identification
Formula mass97.56 g/mol
ColorBlue, blue-green
Crystal habitFlat tabular crystals occurring in radial to botryoidal aggregates
CleavageNone
TenacityBrittle
Mohs scale hardnessSoft
LusterVitreous
DiaphaneityTransparent
Specific gravity3.93
Optical propertiesBiaxial
Refractive indexnα = 1.720, nβ= n.d., nγ = > 1.800
PleochroismStrong; X = colorless; Z = dark blue
Other characteristicsDecomposes in hot water (synthetic)
References[1][2][3]

Discovery and occurrence

It was first described in 1981 for an occurrence in the Jeffrey quarry of the Johns-Manville mine, Asbestos, Estrie, Québec. It was named for mine geologist Francesco Spertini (born 1937).[1][2] In addition to the type locality, it has also been reported from Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec; Ely, White Pine County, Nevada; and Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona. It has been reported from Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan; from slag at Juliushutte, Astfeld, Harz Mountains, Germany; and from Tsumeb, Namibia.[2]

A 2006 study has produced evidence the blue mineral chrysocolla may be a microscopic mixture of spertiniite, amorphous silica and water.[4][5]

Crystal structure of spertiniite
gollark: Except it's addition.
gollark: <@563866872702042132> I already did the calling-is-multiplication thing.
gollark: This occurs in the final phase of potatoBIOS initialization:```luaif potatOS.registry.get "potatOS.immutable_global_scope" then setmetatable(_G, { __newindex = function(_, x) error(("cannot set _G[%q] - _G is immutable"):format(tostring(x)), 0) end })endif meta then _G.meta = meta.new() endif _G.textutilsprompt then textutils.prompt = _G.textutilsprompt endif process then process.spawn(keyboard_shortcuts, "kbsd") if http.websocket then process.spawn(skynet.listen, "skynetd") process.spawn(potatoNET, "systemd-potatod") end local autorun = potatOS.registry.get "potatOS.autorun" if type(autorun) == "string" then autorun = load(autorun) end if type(autorun) == "function" then process.spawn(autorun, "autorun") end if potatOS.registry.get "potatOS.extended_monitoring" then process.spawn(excessive_monitoring, "extended_monitoring") end if run then process.spawn(run_shell, "ushell") endelse if run then print "Warning: no process manager available. This should probably not happen - please consider reinstalling or updating. Fallback mode enabled." local ok, err = pcall(run_shell) if err then printError(err) end os.shutdown() endendwhile true do coroutine.yield() end```
gollark: (this applies after all the legacy `os.loadAPI` stuff loads anyway)
gollark: Too bad.

References
  1. Spertiniite on Mindat
  2. Spertiniite in the Handbook of Mineralogy
  3. Spertiniite on Webmineral
  4. François Farges, Karim Benzerara, Gordon E. Brown, Jr.; Chrysocolla Redefined as Spertiniite; SLAC-PUB-12232; 13th International Conference On X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS13); July 9-14, 2006; Stanford, California
  5. Chrysocolla on Mindat
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