Bartonite
Bartonite and Erdite occur intergrown as brown masses from an alkaline diatreme at
Coyote Peak (Humboldt Co., California, USA). Aesthetically they are not spectacular,
but as sulfides go they are very interesting. An alkaline diatreme is not your first pick for
looking for sulfides - and sure, then you do get weird ones! Erdite is one of the few
sulfides incorporating crystal water. Bartonite is always intergrown with Erdite, and
only known from the type locality. Erdite has also been identified from the Lovozero
intrusion (Kola, Russia) and from Mt. St.-Hilaire (Quebec, Canada).
Specimen Handling
Bartonite and the ubiquitously intergrown Erdite are probably practical purposes stable
in a normal household environment, but little data is available. We have not had
problems with specimens over periods of 3-8 years in either humid or dry
environments, but given they are iron sulfides formed in rather extreme geological
conditions, we can not guarantee long-term stability
Bibliography
Anthony, John Williams, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh & Monte C.
Nichols. 1990. Handbook of mineralogy, vol. 1
Blackburn, William H. & William H. Dennen. 1997. Encyclopedia of mineral
names. Canadian Mineralogist, special publication 1.
Gaines, Richard W., H. Catherine W. Skinner, Eugene E. Foord, Brian Mason,
Abraham Rosenzweig & Vandall T. King. 1997. Dana's new mineralogy: the
system of mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, 8th
ed.
Pemberton, H. Earl. 1983. Minerals of California.
Ramdohr, Paul & Hugo Strunz. 1980. Klockmann's Lehrbuch der Mineralogie,
16th ed.
Roberts, Willard Lincoln, Thomas J. Campbell & George Robert Rapp jr. 1990.
Encyclopedia of Minerals 2nd ed.
This page is written and maintaned by Claus
Hedegaard
