Muséum national d'histoire naturelle _ The species

FROM : Beix mine, Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France

This yellow ligth fluorite is one of many samples coming from Beix mineral deposit in Puy-de-Dôme, France.

It is a ensemble of imbricated cubic crystals more or less elongated. Fluorite is trasparent. One can guess a thin colour variation inside some crystals.

It is kept in the storage rooms of the collections of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (i.e., not yet displayed to the public).

Photography: Louis-Dominique Bayle, © MNHN.

SPECIE : Fluorite

HISTORY : Name derived from Latin "fluere" meaning flowing, in reference to its melting behavior

Species first described in 1529 by Agricola Georgius (1494-1555), German mineralogist

Type-locality: undefined because species already known by the Ancients
ANCIENT NAME : Spatum vitreum, calx fluorata, spath fluor

CHEMICAL FORMULA : Ca F2
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Cubic
COLOR : Colourless, white, blue, green, yellow, violett, pink
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to translucent
LUSTER : Vitreous
STREAK : White
MORPHOLOGY : Well-formed crystals, cubic-shaped, octahedrally-shaped
HARDNESS : 4
DENSITY : 3,18

CHEMICAL CLASS : III - Halogénures
GROUP : Fluorite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 3/A.08-10
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 3.AB.25

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Fluorite

Fluorite

MNHN N°196.100

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