Santaclaraite, a new calcium-manganese silicate hydrate from California.

Santaclaraite, ideally CaMn4(Si5O14(OH))(OH).H2O, occurs as pink and tan veins and masses in Franciscan chert in the Diablo Range, Santa Clara and Stanislaus counties, California. It is associated with four unidentified Mn silicates, Mn-howieite, quartz, braunite, calcite, rhodochrosite, kutnahorite, baryte, harmotome, chalcopyrite and native copper. Santaclaraite is triclinic, space group B1, a 15.633(1), b 7.603(1) , c 12.003(1) A, alpha 109.71(1)o, beta 88.61(1)o, gamma 99.95(1) o, V 1322.0(3) A3; Z = 4. The strongest lines of the X-ray pattern are 7.04(100), 3.003(84), 3.152(80), 7.69(63), 3.847(57) A. Crystals are lamellar to prismatic (flattened on (100)), with good cleavage on (100) and (010); H. 61/2 Dcalc. 3.398 g/cm3, Dmeas. 3.31 (+ or -0.01); optically biaxial negative, alpha 1.681, beta 1.696, gamma 1.708 (all + or - 0.002), 2Valpha 83 (+ or -1)o. Although chemically a hydrated rhodonite, santaclaraite dehydrates to Mn-bustamite at approx 550oC (in air) . Santaclaraite is a five-tetrahedral-repeat single-chain silicate and has structural affinities with rhodonite, nambulite, marsturite, babingtonite and inesite.-J.A.Z.