472 - Tugtupite

ID	472
Mineral	Tugtupite
Location	Tugtup Agtakôrfia - Kujalleq - Ilímaussaq - Greenland
Fluorescence	LW-UV: check SW-UV: check
Mindat.org	View Tugtupite information at mindat.org

ID	4044
Long ID	1:1:4044:6
Formula	`Na₄BeAlSi₄O₁₂Cl`
IMA Status	0
Occurrence	As replacements of chkalovite in hydrothermal veins cutting sodalite syenite and syenite.
Discovery Year	1962
Diapheny	Translucent
Cleavage	On {101}; on {110} fair.
Tenacity	brittle
Colour	Commonly red, also white to pink, bluish white, greenish white
Hardness (min)	4.0
Hardness (max)	4.0
About the name	Named after its discovery locality, Tugtup Agtâkorfia, Narsaq municipality, Greenland.
Streak	white
Crystal System	Tetragonal
Cleavage Type	Distinct/Good
Fracture type	Step-Like
Morphology	Short tetragonal prisms with pyramids, sphenoids, and bisphenoids. Fine-grained aggregates; massive.
Twinning	On (101), penetration twinning resulting in pseudocubic triplets; pseudotrigonal contact twins with composition planes (10_1) and (01_1).
UV	Bright magenta-red to pink (SW UV). A stone was initially pink, and turned red immediately upon exposure to long-wave UV radiation. After the UV lamp was turned off, the stone returned to pink after several minutes. This chromatic change was repeatable. Specifically, it becomes dark red when exposed to UV radiation (or is irradiated by X-rays), and the colour fades to a paler red, pink or white when kept in the dark or exposed to bright light for a few minutes. This colour behaviour is probably due to an electron trapped in a Cl vacancy and associated sulphur polyanions.
Publication Year	1962
key_elements	0 1
shortcode_ima	Ttp
Group	Helvine Group

Tugtupite