Prevalent Minerals

There are thousands of minerals, and, having read up on many of them, I still don't know much about their prevalence in the earth's crust.

There are some minerals that exist all over the earth, like quartz and calcite, and there are some that have only been found in a few countries, like cryolite (which has been found in five), and there are some minerals that have only ever been found in once place, like khatyrkite, which was found in a meteorite in Russia that might have broken off of the main-belt asteroid 89 Julia (between Mars and Jupiter), or the mineral triazolite, which forms when the poop of the Chilean Guanay cormorant reacts with chalcopyrite-bearing gabbro rocks, or jimthompsonite, which has only every been found in a quarry in Vermont where God placed it for Jim Thompson to find.

It doesn't take a ton of work to figure out all the places that a mineral has been found; you just have to look at the mindat.org page for the mineral. But that little bit adds up when there are thousands of minerals. So here below is a list ~200 that I most want to know about. Over the coming weeks, I'll slowly add prevalence data. Even if I fail to do that, it's still nice to have a semi-categorized list of minerals that I care about.

* Feldspars (Tectosilicate): orthoclase, microcline, sanidine, anorthoclase, albite, oligoclase, andesine, labradorite, bytownite, anorthite

* Feldspathoids (Tectosilicate): leucite, lazurite, sodalite, petalite

* Zeolites (Tectosilicate): mesolite, clinoptilolite, natrolite, analcime, ferrierite, stilbite, chabazite

* Micas (Phyllosilicate): biotite, muscovite, lepidolite, phlogopite

* Serpentines (Phyllosilicate): chrysotile, lizardite

* Prehnites (Phyllosiilicate): prehnite

* Clays (Phyllosilicate): chamosite, attapulgite, beidellite, clinochlore, halloysite, illite, kaolinite, montmorillonite, nacrite, nontronite, pennantite, pyrophyllite, saponite, sepiolite, serpentinite, talc, vermiculite

* Pyroxenes (Inosilicate): aegirine, augite, diopside, enstatite, esseneite, ferrosilite, hedenbergite, hypersthene, jadeite, omphacite, pigeonite, spodumene, wollastonite, rhodonite

* Amphiboles (Inosilicate): anthophyllite, cummingtonite, grunerite, tremolite, actinolite, hornblende, glaucophane, riebeckite

* Cyclosilicates: beryl, cordierite, dioptase, tourmaline, schorl

* Nesosilicates: andalusite, kyanite, sillimanite, olivine, forsterite, fayalite, tephroite, chondrodite, euclase, norbergite, staurolite, titanite (sphene), topaz, willemite, zircon, pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular, uvarovite, andradite

* Sorosilicates: epidote, zoisite, hemimorphite, idocrase (vesuvianite)

* Oxides: anatase, ilmenite, brookite, rutile, cassiterite, chrysoberyl, spinel, magnetite, corundum, cristobalite, quartz, cuprite, hematite, periclase, litharge, pyrolusite, uraninite, scheelite, wolframite, wulfenite

* Hydroxides: brucite, diaspore, boehmite, gibbsite, goethite

* Borates: borax, ulexite, colemanite, howlite

* Carbonates: calcite, aragonite, dolomite, azurite, siderite, cerussite, magnesite, malachite, nahcolite, rhodochrosite, smithsonite, trona

* Nitrates: niter, soda niter, nitrocalcite

* Phosphates: apatite, struvite, autunite, brushite, vivianite, monazite, scorzalite, lazulite, turquoise, augelite, stercorite, wavellite, whitlockite, xenotime

* Sulfides: acanthite, cinnabar, pyrite, realgar, arsenopyrite, galena, bornite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, orpiment, pyrrhotite, troilite, sphalerite, stibnite, wurtzite, chalcocite

* Sulfates: anhydrite, gypsum, epsomite, glauberite, mirabilite, thenardite, baryte, anglesite, chalcanthite, ettringite, hanksite, jarosite, alum-K, alum-Na, alunite

* Chalcogens: fluorite, halite, sylvite, bischofite

* Organics: graphite, diamond, whewellite, hoelite

While making the list, I found a neat article about the structure of prehnite. It's pretty rare and it's usually described as being an inosilicate mineral, meaning it has a backbone of silicate tetrahedra all chained up together in a row and sharing oxygen atoms at the corners. I couldn't find any source telling whether it was a single-chain inosilicate (like the pyroxenes) or a double-chain (like the amphiboles) or something weirder (like the inosilicate mineral that God put in Vermont for Jim Thompson), until I found Steve Dutch's webpage. He explains that prehnite is something weirder. It has its own mineral structure, which is generally planar (phyllosilicate), but a little more three-dimensional (like the tectosilicates), and also the planes are made of rectangular helices of silica and alumina tetrahedra, so it's a little bit inosilicate too. Mindat.org also calls it a phyllosilicate, so that's good enough for me. Despite being kind of rare, Prehnite has been found in dozens of countries and every continent, including Antarctica. So I guess it's both uncommon and widespread? Cool. 

Now I've just got to get similar data for another ~193 minerals. Maybe I can automate it. Any mineral that has 9 or more countries and 5 or more continents will get put in a a special bin called "Prevalent", maybe. And then I'll know if apatite is globally more common than magnesite. And I'll have a better idea, when I pick up a handful of pebbles from a river bed, if there's likely to be any spinel or hypersthene in there. And I'll know if I'd be more likely to find mercury ores or lead ores if I were to try mining by fire-setting. Important stuff like that.