New arsenate minerals from the Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. XX. Evseevite, Na₂Mg(AsO₄)F, the first natural arsenate with an antiperovskite structure

Abstract

The new mineral evseevite was found in the Arsenatnaya fumarole, Second scoria cone of the Northern Breakthrough of the Great Tolbachik Fissure Eruption, Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. Evseevite is represented by two chemical varieties. The variety close to the end-member Na2Mg(AsO4)F (holotype) is associated with sanidine, hematite, tenorite, aegirine, cassiterite, sylvite, halite, johillerite, badalovite, calciojohillerite, hatertite, arsmirandite, yurmarinite, axelite, polyarsite, aphthitalite, potassic-magnesio-fluoro-arfvedsonite, litidionite, ferrisanidine and tridymite. The P- and S-enriched variety (cotype) is associated with hematite, fluorophlogopite, svabite, fluorapatite, tilasite, calciojohillerite, forsterite, cassiterite, belomarinaite and aphthitalite. Evseevite occurs as prismatic, acicular or hair-like crystals up to 0.7 mm long combined in clusters up to 0.5 mm, brushes or crusts up to 2 × 2 mm. It is transparent, colourless or pale pinkish, with vitreous lustre. Dcalc is 3.377 g cm–3 for the holotype and 3.226 g cm–3 for the cotype. Evseevite is optically uniaxial (+), α = 1.545(2), β = 1.546(2), γ = 1.549(2) and 2Vmeas = 40(10)°. The empirical formulae calculated based on O+F = 5 apfu are (Na1.99Ca0.03K0.01)Σ2.03(Mg0.98Fe3+0.01Zn0.01Cu0.01)Σ1.01[(As0.98Si0.01)Σ1.01O4](F0.97O0.03) for the holotype and Na2.02(Mg1.00Fe3+0.03)Σ1.03[(As0.69P0.25S0.07)Σ1.01O4](F0.78O0.22) for the cotype. Evseevite is orthorhombic, Pbcn, a = 5.3224(1), b = 14.1255(3), c = 12.0047(3) Å, V = 902.53(4) Å3 and Z = 8. Strong reflections of the powder XRD pattern [d,Å(I)(hkl)] are: 4.001(100)(121), 3.479(56)(023), 3.041(45)(042), 2.657(44)(200), 2.642(68)(142) and 2.613(36)(104). The crystal structure was solved from single-crystal XRD data and refined on powder data by the Rietveld method, Rwp = 0.0068, Rp= 0.0047 and Robs = 0.0435. Evseevite is isostructural to moraskoite Na2Mg(PO4)F. The structure of evseevite can be described in terms of anion-centred polyhedra. F-centred octahedra [FNa4Mg2]7+ share faces to form chains [FNa2Mg]3+ and AsO4 tetrahedra are located between the chains. Evseevite belongs to a small set of minerals with antiperovskite structures and is the first natural arsenate with antiperovskite units. The mineral is named in honour of the Russian mineralogist Aleksandr Andreevich Evseev (born 1949).