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ANORTHIC SERIES
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ANORTHIC SERIES. Aenigmatite . Na4Fe"9A1 Fe"' (Si,Ti)12044. Of these, tremolite, hornblende and crocidolite, as well as the important varieties, asbestos and jade, are treated under their own headings. Brief mention only need be here made of some of the others. Naturally, on account of the wide variations in chemical composition, the different members vary considerably in characters and general appearance; the specific gravity, for example, varies from 2•9 in tremolite to 3.8 in aenigmatite. Anthophyllite occurs as brownish, fibrous or lamellar masses with hornblende in mica-schist at Kongsberg in Norway and some other localities. An aluminous variety is known as gedrite, and a deep green, Russian variety containing little iron as kupfferite. Actinolite is an important member of the monoclinic series, forming radiating groups of acicular crystals of a bright green or greyish-green colour. It occurs frequently as a constituent of crystalline schists. The name (from aKTis, a ray, and XiOos, a stone) is a translation of the old German word Strahlstein, radiated stone. Glaucophane, crocidolite, riebeckite and arfvedsonite form a somewhat special group of alkali-amphiboles. The two former are blue fibrous minerals occurring in crystalline schists, and are the result of dynamo-metamorphic processes; the two latter are dark green minerals which occur as original constituents of igneous rocks rich in soda, such as nepheline-syenite and phonolite. Aenigmatite and its variety cossyrite are rare minerals forming constituents of igneous rocks of the nepheline-syenite and phonolite groups. (L. J. S.)