Open Adit™ - Muscovite Datasheet

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Muscovite (Potash Mica) is the most common mica, found in granites, pegmatites, gneisses and schists, and as a contact metamorphic rock or as a secondary mineral resulting from the alteration of topaz, feldspar, kyanite, etc. In pegmatites, it is often found in immense sheets that are commercially valuable.

It can be colorless or tinted through grays, browns, greens, yellows, or rarely violet or red, and can be transparent or translucent. The green chromium rich variety is called Fuchsite.

Chemistry:

KAl₂(AlSi₃O₁₀)(F,OH)₂ -
Potassium aluminum silicate hydroxide fluoride

Class

Silicates

Subclass:

Phyllosilicates

Group:

Mica

Varities:

Fuchsite

Crystal:

Monoclinic

Color:

White, greenish, yellowish, pinkish, green (fuchsite), gray

Streak:

White

Luster:

Vitreous to pearly

Diaphaneity:

Transparent to translucent

2.8

2.5 - 3

Perfect

Uneven

Tabular crystals, lamellar and scaly aggregates, massive.

Luminescence:

None

Frequency:

Common

Origin:

Metamorphic in various rock types, as mica schists, gneisses; magmatic in granite and pegmatites; hydrothermal in veins or next to ore veins (fuschite). Important rock-forming mineral, usually associated with quartz, K-spar, albite and biotite.

Occurence:

Nellore, India; Alabashka near Murzinka, Ural mountains, Russia; Cruzeiro mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Application:

Heat and electrical insulator for industrial purposes and as a mineral specimen.

Muscovite Gallery

Metaphysical Properties

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