Online Encyclopedia

ZOISITE

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 1001 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ZOISITE  , a

rock-forming
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mineral, consisting of basic calcium and aluminium silicate, Ca2(AlOH)Al2(SiO4)3, crystallizing in the orthorhombic
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system . It is closely related to
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epidote (q.v.) both in the angles of the crystals and in chemical composition: a zoisite containing some iron replacing aluminium may be identical in composition with an epidote (" clinozoisite ") poor in iron . The crystals are prismatic in habit and are deeply furrowed parallel to their length; terminal planes are rare; there is a perfect cleavage parallel to the brachy-pinacoid . Columnar and compact masses are more
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common . The hardness is 61 and the specific gravity 3'25-3.37 . The colour is often grey; a rose-red variety, known as " thulite," occurs with sky-blue
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vesuvianite at Telemarken in Norway, and has been used to a limited extent as an ornamental stone . According to differences in the
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optical characters, two kinds of zoisite have been distinguished . Zoisite is a product of dynamo-metamorphism, and occurs as a constituent of some crystalline schists, such as
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amphibolite and eclogite . It was first observed by Baron Zois (after whom it was named) in the eclogite of Sau-Alpe in Carinthia; other localities are the Ducktown copper mines in
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Tennessee, where it occurs embedded in chalcopyrite; Loch Garve in Ross-
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shire, &c . The " saussurite " of the
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Alps and elsewhere, which has resulted from the alteration of the
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plagioclase felspar of
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gabbro, consists largely of zoisite with epidote . (L . J .

End of Article: ZOISITE
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JOHANN ZOFFANY (1733-1810)
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EMILE EDOUARD CHARLES ANTOINE ZOLA (1840-1902)

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