Muséum national d'histoire naturelle _ The species

FROM : Chessy-les-Mines, Rhône, France
SIZE : 13.5 x 10.5 cm

There are two specimens of azurite under this inventory number. The specimen shown here is a combination of azurite and malachite in a geode. The crystals of azurite are well formed; one can clearly observe their losangic form. They are of a depp blue color and locally transparent.

This specimen, resulting from the Chessy mine in the Rhône, is an old sample from the collection of colonel Louis Vesignié. It was classified under the N°1153C before entering the collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle in 1955.

This sample is currently exposed in the Room of the Treasure, within the Gallery of Mineralogy of the Muséum.

Photography: Louis-Dominique Bayle, © MNHN.

SPECIE : Azurite

HISTORY : Name inspired by Persian word "lazhward" meaning "blue", in reference to its colour

Species redescribed and renamed in 1824 par François-Sulpice Beudant (1787-1850), French mineralogist and geologist

Type-locality: Chessy-les-Mines, Rhône, France
ANCIENT NAME : Fleur de cuivre bleu, cuivre carbonaté bleu

CHEMICAL FORMULA : Cu3 (CO3)2 (OH)2
CRYSTAL SYSTEM : Monoclinic
COLOR : Light blue to dark blue
DIAPHANIETY : Transparent to opaque
LUSTER : Vitreous
STREAK : Light blue
MORPHOLOGY : Tabular crystals, prismatic, rhomboedric, massive, earthy, as roses, botryoidal
HARDNESS : 3,5-4,0
DENSITY : 3,78

CHEMICAL CLASS : V - Carbonates, nitrates
GROUP : Azurite
STRUNZ CLASS BEFORE 2001 : 5/C.01-10
STRUNZ CLASS AFTER 2001 : 5.BA.05

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Azurite

MNHN N°155.97

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