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Sylvite | ||
 | Mineral name: | Sylvite |
| Formula: | KCl | |
| Category: | Halide | |
| Name Origin: | Old chemical name Sal digestivus Sylvii or digestive salt of Francois Sylvius de la Boë (1614-1672), Dutch chemist and physician of Leyden | |
| Uses: | Main source of potassium compounds used in fertilizers | |
| Diagnostic features: | Taste is more bitter than halite. Also when the surface is scratched with a knife, halite will produce a powder but sylvite will not. | |
| Interesting facts: | Sylvite has the same mode of formation as halite but is much rarer. | |
| PROPERTIES | ||
| Colour: | "Colourless or white; also shades of blue, yellow | |
| Streak: | White | |
| Luster: | Glassy | |
| Hardness: | 2 | |
| Density: | 2 | |
| Form: | Cubic | |
| For more info on this mineral: | http://webmineral.com/data/Sylvite.shtml http://www.mindat.org/min-3850.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvite | |
| THIS SAMPLE: | ||
| Name: | Sylvite | |
| Size: | 6.5 cm wide x 6.5 cm high | |
| Came from: | Saskatoon | |
| Province: | Saskatchewan | |
| Collection of: | Canadian Museum of Nature CMNMC 32209 | |
| Photography by: | © Canadian Museum of Nature | |
