Haggertyite

Abstract: Batiferrite, ideally Ba[Ti2Fe10]O19, was found in the Quaternary volcanic rocks near Udersdorf, Graulai, and Altburg, western Eifel area, Germany. The new mineral typically occurs as euhedral platy grains in cavities of melilite- and leucite-nephelinite basalts. Associated minerals are hematite, magnetite, titanite, gotzenite, clinopyroxene, nepheline, and biotite. It exhibits a hexagonal tabular habit flattened on {0001}, diameter 0.5–1 mm, thickness 20–125 μm, and {10&1macr;3}, {10&1macr;0} as observable forms. The mineral is opaque, of black color with submetallic lustre, and shows a ferrimagnetic behavior. VHN50 is 793 with a range of 710–841 from ten indentations. The quantitative reflectance measurements of Ro/Re on oriented grains in air and oil immersion, respectively, are [%]: for 470 nm 22.1/20.1 and 8.4/7.1, for 546 nm 21.0/19.4 and 7.8/6.6, for 589 nm 20.2/18.8 and 7.4/6.3, and for 650 nm 19.3/18.3 and 6.8/5.9. The bireflectance is distinct (air) to weak (oil), and parallel (0001) a moderate anisotropy with straight extinction can be observed. Typical microprobe analyses give [wt%] K2O 0.28–0.33, Na2O 0.17–0.20, SrO 0.46–0.55, BaO 11.80–12.17, MgO 1.27–1.47, Al2O3 0.31–0.33, TiO2 13.11–13.63, MnO 2.38–2.57, Fe2O3 61.36–63.12, FeO 5.49–5.86 (Fe3+/Fe2+ calculated for charge compensation), which is equivalent to (Ba0.84Na0.06K0.06Sr0.05)1.01(Fe8.48 3+Fe0.86 2+Ti1.82Mg0.37Mn0.37Al0.06)11.96O19 as the average composition based on 19 oxygen atoms. Batiferrite is a magnetoplumbite-type mineral with hexagonal symmetry, space group P6 3 /mmc (no. 194), a = 5.909(1) A, c = 23.369(4) A, V = 706.6(2) A3, Z = 2, and a calculated density of 5.016 gcm−3. The structure was refined to R1 = 0.031 for 278 unique reflections with Fo 2 > 4σ (Fo 2) and R1 = 0.079 for all 452 unique observations using single crystal X-ray data. The strongest reflections of the X-ray powder diffraction pattern are [d obs, I/Io, (hkl)]: 2.631, 100, (114); 2.799, 80, (107); 1.478, 70, (220); 2.429, 60, (203); 1.672, 50, (217). The new mineral is comparable to the other Ba containing magnetoplumbite-type minerals haggertyite and hawthorneite, the iron content, however, is much higher and in the range of magnetoplumbite. The large cation site (A) is dominated by Ba, and four of the five remaining crystallographic cation sites in the structure are dominated by Fe (M1, 2, 3, 5), the octahedrally coordinated M4-site is dominated by Ti. No oxygen vacancy on the O3-site like in plumboferrite can be observed. Batiferrite is named for its main chemical composition and the relationship to the M-type hexaferrites (polytype 5H).

Abstract: The recently discovered mineral haggertyite, which belongs to the magnetoplumbite family, occurs in the Prairie Creek lamproite exclusively in a reaction zone at the contact between the olivine lamproite and serpentized xenoliths. Compositional characteristics of the lamproite are an extreme enrichment in elements such as K, Ba, and Ti, associated with very low Al2O3. Based on textural evidence, it appears that the xenoliths represent a quenched very mafic magma, possibly komatiitic. An absence of perovskite in the reaction zone is the consequence of Si diffusion from the xenolith. Iron available in the xenolith may be the controlling factor for the crystallization of haggertyite and other Fe- and Ti-oxides involved in the reaction. Other elements (K, Ti, and Ba) diffused from the lamproite toward the xenolith zone but only the outermost edge of the xenoliths reacted. The crystallization of haggertyite appears to have resulted from a local chemical environment created by element diffusion between the two significantly contrasting lithologies.