Muséum national d'histoire naturelle _ The species

FROM : Rossignol mines, Chaillac, Indre, France
SIZE : 6.5 x 5.3 x 3.8 cm

This crystal is a white twinned cerusite. The crystal is said "floating" since it has developed without being attached to rock on a matrix. It is one of the biggest crystal of cerusite discovered in France, it measures 6.5 x 5.3 x 3.8 cm.

This sample comes from Rossignol mines, near Chaillac, Indre, in France. Mrs Somenzi offered it to the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in march 2000 on behalf of her son Guy, deceaded.

This sample is currently exposed in the Treasure Room, within the Gallery of Mineralogy of the Muséum.

Photography: Louis-Dominique Bayle, © MNHN.

SPECIE : Cerusite

HISTORY : Name derived from Latin "cerussa" meaning white of lead, Name given by Pline to the synthetic lead carbonate

Species first described in 1845 by Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (1795-1871), Austrian geologist and mineralogist

Type-locality: Vicentin, Italy

CHEMICAL FORMULA : Pb CO3
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Orthorhombique
COLOR : Colorless, white, yellow pale, smoky to gray black
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to transludent
LUSTER : Adamantine
STREAK : White
MORPHOLOGY : Tabular crystals, pseudo-hexagonal, combined. Prismatic aggregates
HARDNESS : 3,0-3,5
DENSITY : 6,577

CHEMICAL CLASS : V - Carbonates, nitrates
GROUP : Aragonite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 5/B.04-40
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 5.AB.15

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Cérusite

MNHN N°200.63

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