Formula: FeCO3
Origin of name: from Greek sideros = iron
Crystal system: hexagonal
Crystal class: -3 2/m
Twinning: uncommon on {01-12} lamellar, uncommon on {0001} simple
Unit cell: a = 4.69 Å, c = 15.39 Å
Colour: pale yellowish, pale green, yellowish brown, brown, reddish
Diaphaneity:
Luster: vitreous, pearly or silky
Habit: crystals rhombohedral or tabular, prismatic, scalenohedral, massive, coarse to fine granular, botroydal, globular
Hardness: 4
Specific gravity: 3.96
Cleavage: 1; {10-11} perfect
Tenacity: conchoidal to uneven, brittle
Streak: white
Synonyms/varieties: chalybite, oligonite (Mn-rich variety), sphaerosiderite (spherically-aggregated variety)
Comments: series with magnesite and with rhodochrosite
| Back to Alphabetical list | Colour photos | Optical properties/Thin sections | SEM images | TEM images | vibrational spectra description | IR spectra | Raman spectra | N-IR spectra | F-IR spectra | IES spectra |