A NEW OCCURRENCE AND NEW DATA ON AKDALAITE, A RETROGRADE MINERAL FROM UHP WHITESCHIST, KOKCHETAV MASSIF, NORTHERN KAZAKHSTAN

Abstract

Akdalaite (5Al2O3·H2O), as well as hogbomite, kyanite, Zn-bearing staurolite, Mg-chlorite, gahnite, hereynite, quartz, apatite, and zircon, are present as submicrometer-size minerals associated with rutile aggregates occurring as inclusions in garnet porphyroblasts of whiteschist from the Kulet Kol region, Kokchetav Massif, northern Kazakhstan. The akdalaite crystals, ~0.5 to 1 μm in size, are subhedral to euhedral, and are bounded by (0001), (0001), {1100}, {1101} facets. EDX analyses show minor Si, Ti, Cr, Fe, Mg, Zn, and Ga, in addition to the major component A1. Electron diffraction data yield the following crystal structural information: space group P63mc, and a = 5.58(1) Å, c = 8.86(2) Å, which are similar to those of synthetic tohdite, but are distinctly different from those reported for the type specimen of akdalaite (P612 or P61, a = 14.97 Å, c = 12.87 Å). The akdalaite type specimen, stored in the museum of the All-Russian Institute of Mineral Resources (VIMS) in Moscow, had also been re-examined; it has crystallographic parameters similar to tohdite. It is therefore concluded that crystallographic data of the akdalaite type specimen derived from powder X-ray experiments are in error, and that akdalaite is the natural counterpart of tohdite. Copyright © 2006 by V.H. Winston & Son, Inc. All rights reserved.