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Download hereGENERAL DESCRIPTION
The name « apatite » comprises a series of hexagonal phosphates which either has hydroxide, fluoride or chloride radicals (respectively named hydroxylapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite).
The fluoride variety is the most abundant in purely inorganic contexts whereas hydroxyapatite dominates in fossil-rich sediments. Then, apatites are generally formed in hydrothermal contexts, in pegmatites but also in sediments (from fossil bones).
The crystals have varied habits: short or lengthened prisms, sometimes flattened, even hexagonal tabular crystals. Apatites can also be present as granular masses and encrustations. Its color is also highly variable because of various impurities and/or color centers (gray, yellow, blue, pink, red, brown, green, violet...) although pure apatite is theoretically colourless.
Beautiful crystals are known in the crystalline marbles of Greenville (Canada), in Panasqueira (Portugal), Durango (Mexico), in the Mias-Gerais (Brazil) and more recently in Pakistan, in China (many locations) or in Siberia.
In France, apatites are present in many deposits: the mine of Montmins (Allier), the Mont Denise (Haute-Loire), within the sands at Concarneau and at the La Villeder mine (Finistère), the massif of Agly (Pyrénées-Orientales), the mine of Montebras (Creuse), the mine of Framont (Bas-Rhin), Raon-l'Etape (Vosges), Luzenac (Ariège) among many other deposits.
The place of conservation of this type is not known.
Did you know? Some apatites are used in the chemical industry where they are employed to manufacture the phosphoric acid and in agriculture, because they enter the composition of the phosphate-bearing fertilizers.
HISTORY : Name derives by the Greek "απατοσ" [apatos] meaning "trickery" because apatite is often mistaken with others minerals
Species described in 1786 by Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749-1817), German geologist of the Freiberg Mining Academy
Type-locality: Greifenstein, Saxe, Germany
CHEMICAL FORMULA : Ca5 (PO4)3 (F, Cl,OH)
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Hexagonal
COLOR : Colourless, blue, yellow, green, brown
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to opaque
LUSTER : Vitreous
STREAK : White
MORPHOLOGIE : Prismatic crystals, hexagonal
HARDNESS : 5
CHEMICAL CLASS: 3,1-3,2
DENSITY : VIII - Phosphates
GROUP : Apatite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 7/B.39-
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 8.BN.05
