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Mineralati

Minerals

Magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S

magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S

Mg3BeAl8O16

Magnesiotaaffeite-2N’2S: Mineral information, data and localities.

Magnesiotaaffeite-2N’2S: Mineral information, data and localities. — via zh.mindat.org · Source

Overview

Taaffeite (; BeMgAl4O8) is a mineral, named after its discoverer Richard Taaffe (1898–1967) who found the first sample, a cut and polished gem, in October 1945 in a jeweler's shop in Dublin, Ireland. As such, it is the only gemstone to have been initially identified from a faceted stone. Taaffeite is a million times rarer than diamonds, and it comes in shades of purple, pink, red. Most pieces of the gem, prior to Taaffe, had been misidentified as spinel. For many years afterwards, it was known only in a few samples, and it is still one of the rarest gemstone minerals in the world. Since 2002, the International Mineralogical Association-approved name for taaffeite as a mineral is magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S.

Identification characteristics

  • Mohs hardness 8

Scientific references

  1. Magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S — Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3843301 Link
  2. Magnesiotaaffeite-2N'2S — Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taaffeite Link