Strunz classification
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The Strunz classification, also known as the Nickel–Strunz classification (especially in its more recent versions), is a systematic classification of minerals based on their chemical and crystallographic properties. It was developed by German mineralogist K. Hugo Strunz (1910–2006) in his Mineralogische Tabellen (1941), as an update of the original Dana classification.[1] The then-available Dana classification dated from 1895, and took no account of the discoveries that had been made into mineral structure through X-ray crystallography.
The Strunz tables have been regularly updated, and the last published edition is the ninth (2001).[2] The eighth and ninth editions were cowritten with Australian mineralogist Ernest H. Nickel (died 18 July 2009), and the system is sometimes referred to as Nickel–Strunz classification.
A tenth version of the classification has been developed, but not formally published: it differs only slightly from the version in the ninth edition of the Strunz Mineralogical Tables, mostly by separating out borate minerals into a class of their own, separate from carbonates and nitrates. The new version, sometimes referred to as "Strunz 10", is currently used by the IMA and by many mineralogical databases.[3]
The "Strunz 10" classification is based on ten mineral classes, determined by the chemical identity of the anion and identified by a two-digit number. There are two intermediate levels of classification, identified by capital letters, above the mineral group or mineral series, which is idnetified by a two-digit number. The Strunz classification number of a mineral need not be unique to that mineral, although in practice it often is.
Top-level classes
- 01: ELEMENTS (metals and intermetallic alloys; metalloids and nonmetals; carbides, silicides, nitrides, phosphides)
- 02: SULFIDES and SULFOSALTS (sulfides, selenides, tellurides; arsenides, antimonides, bismuthides; sulfarsenites, sulfantimonites, sulfbismuthites, etc.)
- 03: HALIDES
- 04: OXIDES (hydroxides, 5- and 6-coordinate vanadates, arsenites, antimonites, bismuthites, sulfites, selenites, tellurites, iodates)
- 05: CARBONATES (nitrates)
- 06: BORATES
- 07: SULFATES (selenates, tellurates, chromates, molybdates, tungstates, niobates)
- 08: PHOSPHATES and ARSENATES (4-coordinate vanadates)
- 09: SILICATES (germanates)
- 10: ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
References
- ↑ Strunz Classification; WebMineral.com, <http://webmineral.com/help/StrunzClass.shtml>. (accessed 4 December 2009).
- ↑ Strunz, Hugo; Nickel, Ernest H. Strunz Mineralogical Tables, 9th ed.; Schweizerbart'sche Vbh.: Stuttgart, 2001. ISBN 351065188X.
- ↑ The official IMA-CNMNC List of Mineral Names; International Mineralogical Association, March 2009, <http://pubsites.uws.edu.au/ima-cnmnc/IMA2009-01%20UPDATE%20160309.pdf>. (accessed 4 December 2009).
External links
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