• journal_title：The Canadian Mineralogist
• Contributor：Nikita V. Chukanov ; Sergey N. Britvin ; Konstantin V. Van ; Steffen Möckel ; Aleksandr E. Zadov
• Publisher：Mineralogical Association of Canada
• Date：2012-
• Format：text/html
• Language：en
• Identifier：10.3749/canmin.50.1.55
• journal_abbrev：Can Mineral
• issn：0008-4476
• volume：50
• issue：1
• firstpage：55
• section：Articles

The new ettringite-group mineral kottenheimite was found at Bellerberg, near Kottenheim, Eastern Eifel area, Rhineland- Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), Germany, and named for the type locality. Associated minerals are wollastonite, clinochlore, ellestadite, melilite, cuspidine, and earlier formed sanidine, clinopyroxene, and magnetite. Kottenheimite forms white radiated and random aggregates of hair-like subparallel clusters of minute crystals. The Mohs’ hardness is 2–2.5; D_meas = 1.92(2) g/cm³, D_calc = 1.926 g/cm³. The new mineral is uniaxial (−), ω = 1.490(2), ɛ = 1.477(2). The IR spectrum of kottenheimite is in accordance with the chemical composition and contains absorption bands in the range 3300–3700 cm⁻¹ (O–H-stretching vibrations), at 1650 and 1683 cm⁻¹ (bending vibrations of H₂O molecules), 1158, 1086, and 987 cm⁻¹ (showing the presence of distorted SO₄²⁻ groups), 752 and 725 cm⁻¹ (corresponding to Si–O stretching vibrations of Si(OH)₆ octahedra). The chemical composition is (electron microprobe, mean of 6 analyses, wt.%; H₂O and CO₂ determined by gas chromatography): CaO 26.04, MgO 0.20, FeO 0.19, Al₂O₃ 0.25, SiO₂ 8.95, SO₃ 24.26, CO₂ 0.58, H₂O 41.30; total 101.77. The empirical formula calculated on the basis of 26 anions is Ca_3.015Mg_0.03Fe_0.02Al_0.03Si_0.97(OH)_5.94(SO₄)_1.97(CO₃)_0.09·11.91H₂O. The simplified formula is Ca₃Si(OH)₆(SO₄)₂·12H₂O. The crystal structure was refined by the Rietveld method (R_p = 0.0487, R_wp = 0.0623, R_B = 0.087) based on the structural model of carraraite, Ca₃Ge(SO₄,CO₃)₂(OH)₆·12H₂O. The new mineral is hexagonal, space group P6₃/m, a = 11.1548(3), c = 10.5702(3) Å, V = 1139.04(5) ų, and Z = 2. The strongest lines of the powder diffraction pattern [d in Å (I) (hkl)] are: 9.72 (100) (100), 5.590 (60) (110), 4.645 (26) (102), 3.840 (54) (112), 2.751 (34) (302), 2.536 (27) (213), 2.185 (30) (223). The channels in the crystal structure of kottenheimite are only filled by sulfate anions and water molecules. Type material is deposited in the collections of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, registration number 4102/1.