|
Atacamite |
Chemical Formula |
Cu2Cl(OH)3 |
Species |
Halides |
Crystal System |
Orthorhombic |
Mohs Scale |
3 |
Specific Gravity |
3.745-3.776 |
Color |
Bright green, dark emerald-green to blackish green |
Streak |
Apple green |
Luster |
Adamantine, Vitreous |
Refractive Index |
n = 1.831 n = 1.861 n = 1.880 |
Diaphaneity |
Transparent, Translucent |
Cleavage |
PerfectOn , fair on . |
Fracture |
Conchoidal |
Crystal Habit:Slender prismatic crystals, fibrous, granular to compact, massive |
Geological Setting:An oxidation product of other copper minerals, especially under arid, saline conditions; in fumarolic deposits; a weathering product of sulphides in submarine black smoker deposits; an alteration product of bronze and copper objects of antiquity. |
Atacamite is a copper halide mineral: a copper(II) chloride hydroxide with formula Cu
2Cl(OH)
3.
It was first described for deposits in the Atacama Desert of Chile in 1801.
Atacamite is polymorphous with botallackite, clinoatacamite, and paratacamite. Atacamite is a comparatively rare mineral, formed from primary copper minerals in the oxidation or weathering zone of arid climates. It has also been reported from fumarole deposits, as sulfide alteration products in black smokers and as alteration of ancient bronze and copper artefacts. It occurs in association with cuprite, brochantite, linarite, caledonite, malachite, chrysocolla and its polymorphs.
It has been shown that atacamite is a component of the jaws of some Glycera species.