Mineral structures
Posted on 31/08/2014
Helen Maynard-Casely
Bonattite – blue copper sulfate, but a lot rarer
What does it look like?
The crystal structure of Bonnattite. The blue atoms are copper, the red oxygen and the yellow are sulfur. Image generated by the VESTA (Visualisation for Electronic and STructural Analysis) software http://jp-minerals.org/vesta/en/
What is it
Discovered in the Toscana region of Italy Bonattite is very similar in composition to copper sulfate pentahydrate, except it has only three water molecules in its structure, making it a copper sulfate trihydrate. There's not much information out there on this elusive mineral, but it is thought to form in hot spring areas like Steamboat Springs in Colorado.
Where did the structure come from?
The structure of Bonattite was determined by Zahrobsky and Baur from a synthetic sample in 1968. You can find this structure in the American Mineralogist database.
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