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Libbyite, (NH4)2(Na2□)[(UO2)2(SO4)3(H2O)]2⋅7H2O, a new mineral with uranyl–sulfate sheets from the Blue Lizard mine, San Juan County, Utah, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2023

Anthony R. Kampf Open the ORCID record for Anthony R. Kampf [Opens in a new window] ,
Travis A. Olds ,
Jakub Plášil Open the ORCID record for Jakub Plášil [Opens in a new window] ,
Barbara P. Nash  and
Joe Marty
Anthony R. Kampf*
Affiliation:
Mineral Sciences Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
Travis A. Olds
Affiliation:
Section of Minerals and Earth Sciences, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 4400 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA
Jakub Plášil
Affiliation:
Institute of Physics of the CAS, Na Slovance 1999/2, 18200 Prague 8, Czech Republic
Barbara P. Nash
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Joe Marty
Affiliation:
Mineral Sciences Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, 900 Exposition Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA
*
*Corresponding author: Anthony R. Kampf; Email: akampf@nhm.org
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Abstract

The new mineral libbyite (IMA2022-091), (NH4)2(Na2□)[(UO2)2(SO4)3(H2O)]2⋅7H2O, was found in the Blue Lizard mine, San Juan County, Utah, USA, where it occurs as tightly intergrown aggregates of light green–yellow equant crystals in a secondary assemblage with bobcookite, coquimbite, halotrichite, metavoltine, rhomboclase, römerite, tamarugite, voltaite and zincorietveldite. The streak is very pale green yellow and the fluorescence is strong green under 405 nm ultraviolet light. Crystals are transparent with vitreous lustre. The tenacity is brittle, the Mohs hardness is ~2½, the fracture is curved. The mineral is soluble in H2O and has a calculated density of 3.465 g⋅cm–3. The mineral is optically uniaxial (–) with ω = 1.581(2) and ɛ = 1.540(2). Electron microprobe analyses provided (NH4)1.92K0.08Na2.00U4.00S6.00O41H18.00. Libbyite is tetragonal, P41212, a = 10.7037(11), c = 31.824(2) Å, V = 3646.0(8) Å3 and Z = 4. The structural unit is a uranyl–sulfate sheet that has the same topology as the sheets in several synthetic uranyl selenates.

Keywords

libbyitenew mineraluranyl sulfatecrystal structureRaman spectroscopyBlue Lizard mineRed CanyonUtahUSA
Type
Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 87 , Issue 5 , October 2023 , pp. 767 - 772
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mineralogical Society of the United Kingdom and Ireland

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Footnotes

Associate Editor: David Hibbs

References

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