Quick
Search: 
 
advanced search
 GSW Home    GeoRef Home    My GSW Alerts    Contact GSW    About GSW    Journals List    Help 
Mineralogical Magazine Don't get GSW? Talk to your librarian.
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS

Mineralogical Magazine; August 2001; v. 65; no. 4; p. 509-522
© 2001 Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Aurisicchio, C.
Right arrow Articles by Orlandi, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Nb-Ta oxide minerals from miarolitic pegmatites of the Baveno pink granite, NW Italy

C. Aurisicchio1, C. De Vito2, V. Ferrini2 and P. Orlandi3

1 C.S. Equilibri Sperimentali in Minerali e Rocce, C.N.R., P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
2 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università ‘La Sapienza’, P. le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy
3 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa, Via S. Maria 53, 56126 Pisa, Italy

* E-mail: carlo.aurisicchio{at}uniroma1.it

Chemical composition and cell parameters were ascertained on new data from Ti-Nb-Ta complex oxides from the miarolitic pegmatites of the Baveno pink granite (Southern Alps, NW Italy). The crystals are tiny, single or aggregated in small sprays, prismatic or tabular, from yellow-orange to brownish in colour. Typical associated minerals include fluorite, zinnwaldite, gadolinite-group minerals and Sc-minerals. Cavity paragenesis is typical of NYF pegmatites, and shows two stages of crystallization developing in magmatic-pneumatolitic and hydrothermal conditions. X-ray data show that some oxides belong to the aeschynite mineral group; others are polycrase and fersmite. Aeschynite and polycrase are chemically heterogeneous and structurally disordered because of their metamict state. This disorder does not always seem to be related to radionuclide contents. Two main trends are indicated, considering the behaviour of Y. The high Y contents fit with very low Ca and LREE contents in the A site; the HREE contents follow the Y trend. In the B site, Ti is the dominant cation, followed by some Nb and very little Ta. Small quantities of Y fit with increasing Ca, U, Th and REE contents. In the B site, Nb cations often exceed those of Ti. The Th contents are often greater than those of U. Besides the already known aeschynite-(Y) and vigezzite, new varieties, ‘titano-vigezzite’ and ‘niobo-aeschynite-(Y)’, are identified here in the Baveno miarolitic cavities. Samples 14 (analysis a) and 2502 (analysis b) have Ca as the main occupant of the A site, followed by Y, Th and REE; in the B site, Ti prevails over Nb. These compositions cannot be considered as pure vigezzite, but as a new variety called ‘titano-vigezzite’. In the same way, analysis a of sample 3 may be considered a new variety of aeschynite-(Y), with Nb prevailing over Ti in the B site, and here called ‘niobo-aeschynite-(Y)’. Neither variety has ever been mentioned in the literature. Epitaxial growth of aeschynite on polycrase (sample 3194) allows some inferences on the crystallization sequence.

KEYWORDS: miarolitic pegmatites, NYF, Ti-Nb-Ta-oxides, aeschynite, vigezzite, new varieties, metamict minerals




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Can MineralHome page
J. F. Slack, J. N. Aleinikoff, H. E. Belkin, C. M. Fanning, and P. W. Ransom
MINERAL CHEMISTRY AND SHRIMP U-Pb GEOCHRONOLOGY OF MESOPROTEROZOIC POLYCRASE-TITANITE VEINS IN THE SULLIVAN Pb-Zn-Ag DEPOSIT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
Can Mineral, April 1, 2008; 46(2): 361 - 378.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Can MineralHome page
V. Bermanec, N. Tomasic, G. Kniewald, M. E. Back, and G. Zagler
NIOBOAESCHYNITE-(Y), A NEW MEMBER OF THE AESCHYNITE GROUP FROM THE BEAR LAKE DIGGINGS, HALIBURTON COUNTY, ONTARIO, CANADA
Can Mineral, April 1, 2008; 46(2): 395 - 402.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Can MineralHome page
C. De Vito, F. Pezzotta, V. Ferrini, and C. Aurisicchio
Nb-Ti-Ta OXIDES IN THE GEM-MINERALIZED AND "HYBRID" ANJANABONOINA GRANITIC PEGMATITE, CENTRAL MADAGASCAR: A RECORD OF MAGMATIC AND POSTMAGMATIC EVENTS
Can Mineral, February 1, 2006; 44(1): 87 - 103.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
American MineralogistHome page
F. Pezzotta, V. Diella, and A. Guastoni
Scandium silicates from the Baveno and Cuasso al Monte NYF-granites, Southern Alps (Italy): Mineralogy and genetic inferences
American Mineralogist, August 1, 2005; 90(8-9): 1442 - 1452.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Eur J MineralHome page
C. M. GRAMACCIOLI, I. CAMPOSTRINI, and P. ORLANDI
Scandium minerals in the miaroles of granite at Baveno, Italy
European Journal of Mineralogy, December 1, 2004; 16(6): 951 - 956.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Home page
Can MineralHome page
C. Aurisicchio, C. De Vito, V. Ferrini, and P. Orlandi
Nb AND Ta OXIDE MINERALS IN THE FONTE DEL PRETE GRANITIC PEGMATITE DIKE, ISLAND OF ELBA, ITALY
Can Mineral, June 1, 2002; 40(3): 799 - 814.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]




JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2008 by Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland