Crystallography365

Blogging a crystal structure a day in 2014

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Helen Maynard-Casely

All of the symmetry - P-3c1: Fluocerite-(La)

What does it look like?

Image from the space group project list https://crystalsymmetry.wordpress.com/230-2/

Image from the space group project list https://crystalsymmetry.wordpress.com/230-2/

What is it?

This is the lanthanum variation of fluocerite, a mineral found in hydrothermal veins of the igneous rock granite. In particular Fluocerite-(La) was first identified in Kazakhstan. The name of this mineral comes from the chemical composition it was first discovered with, fluorine and cerium. Like Saturday and Sunday's structures, today's is inspired by the space group list project. Fluocerite crystallised in space group #165, the P-3c1 space group.

Where did the structure come from?

This structure was first determined by Massmann in 1965. Its CIF file can be found in the American Mineralogist Crystal Structure Database.

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