Muséum national d'histoire naturelle _ The species

FROM : Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
SIZE : 8.3 x 7 x 3 cm

This sample shows a nuclear more or less spherical, on which small lenticular crystals of brown gypsum had developped and where larger twinned crystals (until 3.5 cm) in rosette coloured in amber and transparentb rise.

This sample comes from Winnipeg mine in Canada. It has been acquired thanks to support from Total. This sample is currently exposed in the Treasure Room, within the Gallery of Mineralogy of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle.

Photography: Louis-Dominique Bayle, © MNHN.

SPECIE : Gypsum

HISTORY : Name inspired by the Greek word "γυψοσ" [gupsos] and by the Latin "gypsum" meaning "plaster stone"

Species described in -315 by Theophrastus (372-287), Greek naturalist

Type-locality : unknown

CHEMICAL FORMULA : Ca SO4 2H2O
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Monoclinic
COLOR : Colorless, white, yellow, blue, pink or reddish
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to translucent
LUSTER : Sub-vitreous
STREAK : White
MORPHOLOGY : Acicular to prismatic crystals, tabular, curved
HARDNESS : 1,5-2,0
DENSITY : 2,31

CHEMICAL CLASS : VI - Sulfates, chromates,
GROUP : Gypse-bassanite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 6/C.22-20
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 7.CD.30

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Gypsum

Gypse

MNHN N°193.11

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