Geographic Minerals

Kerolite: Properties and Occurrences

Kerolite: Properties and Occurrences

Kerolite or Cerolite is a metamorphic nickel bearing phyllosilicate mineral variety of talc, can be seen as a mixture of serpentine and saponite as well. It has the formula:  (Mg, Ni)3Si4O10(OH)2·H2O. It is often considered as a talc variety and it was discredited 1979.

It is a metamorphic nickel-bearing phyllosilicate mineral similar to talc and serpentine.

General information:

  • Colour: white, brown, green, colorless
  • Lustre: Waxy, Dull
  • Hardness: 2 – 2½
  • Crystal System: Monoclinic.

Fig: Kerolite

Physical Properties:

Kerolite is commonly considered to be of low-temperature origin; field evidence and the coliform texture support a deposition from colloidal suspension.

  • Lustre: Waxy, Dull
  • Colour: white, brown, green, colorless
  • Streak: white
  • Hardness: 2 – 2½ on the Mohs scale

Occurrence – It occurs generally in association with weathered ultramafic rocks as coatings and as veins filling cracks and often is intimately mixed with a poorly crystalline serpentine mineral.

Kerolites from Goles Mountain (Yugoslavia), Wiry (Poland), Madison Co. (North Carolina), and Kremze (Czechoslovakia) are compared with talc and stevensite.

Kerolite is considered to be a useful varietal name for this talc-like mineral in agreement with the views of D’yakonov and of Maksimovic.

 

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