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Formula: K1.5-x(Ca,Y,REE)5[Si6O15][Si2O7](OH,F)2.yH2O
Inosilicate (chain silicate)
Crystal System: Triclinic
Specific gravity: 2.84 to 2.93 measured, 2.80 calculated
Hardness: 5½ to 6
Streak: White
Colour: Pink, red-brown, raspberry-red
Solubility: Insoluble in hydrochloric, nitric and sulphuric acid (CM 11.569)
Melting point below 1400oC (CM 11.569)
Common impurities: Al,Y,TR,La,Pr,Nd,Eu,Dy,Er,Tm,Yb,Lu,Fe,Mn
Mildly RADIOACTIVE
Environments
Plutonic igneous environments
Carbonatites
Metamorphic environments
Localities
At the Kipawa alkaline complex, Les Lacs-du-Témiscamingue, Témiscamingue RCM, Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Québec, Canada,
miserite occurs as red-brown cleavage masses in a carbonatite vein, closely associated with dark green
hornblende, pink eudialyte,
scapolite, fluorite and
mosandrite
(CM 11.569, HOM).
At Dara-i-Pioz Glacier, Districts of Republican Subordination, Tajikistan, miserite occurs in
quartz-albite-aegirine
veinlets and in albitites in
syenites. Associated minerals include
baratovite, ekanite and
titanite
(HOM).
At the type locality, the North Wilson pit, Union Carbide Mine, Wilson Springs, Garland county, Arkansas, USA,
miserite occurs as a constituent of banded metamorphosed shale at the
contact with a dike of nepheline syenite. The
shale contains the apple-blossom pink to pale rose miserite and white
wollastonite crystals. The metamorphosed and indurated
shale is composed essentially of
orthoclase, aegirine,
wollastonite and miserite. The miserite is fine-grained fibrous,
and the compact aggregates form slightly curved, scaly masses several inches in diameter but rarely more than a quarter of
an inch thick. Commonly it is in the white wollastonite, at many places forming
a border zone between the wollastonite and the greenish host rock, which is
much seamed with veinlets of wollastonite with or without miserite, and
of aegirine. Many fragments of
wollastonite are penetrated by long, slender prisms of miserite that,
when abundant, form aggregate pseudomorphs after
wollastonite
(AM 35.911-921, HOM).
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