Fibrous minerals from Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex

Abstract

A survey on fibrous minerals coming from the densely populated area of Campania around the Somma-Vesuvius volcanic complex (Italy) was performed by means of a multi-methodological approach, based on morphological analyses, EMPA/WDS and SEM/EDS applications, and unit-cell determination through X-ray diffraction data. Such mineralogical investigation aims to provide suitable tools to the identification of fibrous natural phases, to improve the knowledge of both geochemical, petrogenetic and regional mineralogy of Somma-Vesuvius area, and to emphasize the presence of minerals with fibrous habit in all volcanic environments. The survey also fits well in the calls of health and environment of Horizon 2020 program of the European Commission (Climate Action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials)

Hydrothermal formation of fibrous mineral structures: The role on strength and mode of failure

“…Over the last decade, high-resolution microscopy had made great strides in revealing the textures of rock cementitious matrices, which often appear as a meshwork of fibers looking aligned, knotted, or tangled when imaged at the micron and nanoscale (Verberne et al, 2013;Verberne et al, 2014;Vanorio and Kanitpanyacharoen, 2015;Rossi et al, 2016;Viti et al, 2018). Fibrous minerals from the serpentine group, for example, are reported in the literature to form a variety of microstructures (Khilyas et al, 2019;Viti et al, 2018), from interconnected networks of ribbon-like or mesh textures to strongly aligned long fibers with preferred orientation.…”

“…First, until one or 2 decades ago, there was simply not enough spatial and temporal resolution to image the structure of nano mineral phases or even characterize the chemistry and the growth of these phases (Hochella et al, 2008;Barnard and Guo, 2012;Caraballo et al, 2015). Thanks to the improved resolution of imaging techniques, apparently unstructured rock matrices appear now as a meshwork of intertwined fibers that look tangled when imaged at the micro and nanoscale (Shervais et al, 2011;Verbene et al, 2013;Verberne et al, 2014;Vanorio and Kanitpanyacharoen, 2015;Rossi et al, 2016;Viti et al, 2018). Nanogeoscience observations provide us with another perspective from which to view rock chemical, physical, and mechanical properties (Hochella et al, 2008).…”