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OLIVENITE

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 88 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OLIVENITE , a See also:

mineral consisting of basic See also:copper arsenate with the See also:formula Cu2(OH)AsO4• It crystallizes in the ortho- rhombic See also:system, and is sometimes found in small brilliant crystals of See also:simple prismatic See also:habit terminated by domal faces. More usually, however, it occurs as globular aggregates of acicular crystals, these fibrous forms often having a velvety lustre: sometimes it is lamellar in structure, or soft and earthy. A characteristic feature, and one to which the name alludes (See also:German, Olivenerz, of A. G. See also:Werner, 1789), is the See also:olive-See also:green See also:colour, which varies in shade from blackish-green in the crystals to almost See also:white in the finely fibrous variety known as " See also:wood-copper." The hardness is 3, and the sp. gr. 4'3. The mineral was formerly found in some abundance, associated with See also:limonite and See also:quartz, in the upper workings in the copper mines of the St See also:Day See also:district in See also:Cornwall; also near See also:Redruth, and in the Tintic district in See also:Utah. It is a mineral of secondary origin, having been formed by the alteration of copper ores and See also:mispickel. The See also:arsenic of olivenite is sometimes partly replaced by a small amount of See also:phosphorus, and in the See also:species libethenite we have the corresponding basic copper phosphate Cu2(OH)PO4. This is found as small dark green crystals resembling olivenite at Libethen in See also:Hungary, and in small amount also in Cornwall. Other members of this isomorphous See also:group of minerals are adamite, Zn2(OH)AsO4, and descloiz?te (q.v.). (L.

J.

End of Article: OLIVENITE

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