|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
Name: |
diopside |
|
|||
|
Class: |
Silicates |
||||
|
Chemistry: |
CaMg(Si2O6) calcium magnesium silicate |
||||
|
Color(s): |
green, yellow, bronze, blue to violet, and sometimes clear. |
||||
|
Hardness: |
5 - 6.5 |
SpecGrav: |
3.22 - 3.4 |
||
|
Fracture: |
uneven |
Cleavage: |
complete |
||
|
Crystal: |
monoclinic short columnar, tabular, often twinning |
||||
|
Envronment: |
contact metamorphics, marbles, and in calcium silicates. |
||||
|
Association: |
wollastonite, grossular garnets, chlorite, calcite, magnetite, mica |
||||
|
Locals: |
| Calif., Montana, USA | Sweden | Canada | Germany | India |USSR | Switzerland | |
||||
|
Misc: |
The name is from the Greek meaning "two views", referencing its two fold monoclinic symmetry. Some of the material can be cabbed to form a cats-eye stone. It is a member of the pyroxene solution series, hedenbergite CaFe(Si2O6), johannsenite Ca(Mn,Fe)(Si2O6) and diopside CaMg(Si2O6). |
||||
|
Photos |
|||||
|
1.) Rajasthan, India |
5.) Dog Lake, Ontario, Canada |
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
