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A brief comment on Hawthorne (2023): “On the definition of distinct mineral species: A critique of current IMA-CNMNC procedures”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2023

Ferdinando Bosi Open the ORCID record for Ferdinando Bosi [Opens in a new window] ,
Frédéric Hatert Open the ORCID record for Frédéric Hatert [Opens in a new window] ,
Marco Pasero ,
Stuart J. Mills ,
Ritsuro Miyawaki  and
Ulf Hålenius
Ferdinando Bosi*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Rome, Italy
Frédéric Hatert
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Mineralogy, University of Liège, Bâtiment B-18, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
Marco Pasero
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Pisa, Via S. Maria 53, I-56126 Pisa, Italy
Stuart J. Mills
Affiliation:
Geosciences, Museums Victoria, P.O. Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia
Ritsuro Miyawaki
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Paleontology, The National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1, Amakubo, Tsukuba 305-0005, Japan
Ulf Hålenius
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, Swedish Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 50 007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden
*
Corresponding author: Ferdinando Bosi; Email: ferdinando.bosi@uniroma1.it
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Abstract

In this communication we present a brief response to Hawthorne (2023) who, in a paper in volume 87, doi.org/10.1180/mgm.2023.8 (this journal), claims evidence for violations of the electroneutrality principle in mineral formulae derived through IMA–CNMNC procedures: i.e. the dominant-constituent rule, the valency-imposed double site-occupancy, the dominant-valency rule, and the site-total-charge approach (STC).

His statement is not correct as the STC method is based on the end-member definition; thus, it cannot violate the requirements of an end-member, particularly the laws of conservation of electric charge. The STC was developed to address the shortcomings in the previous IMA–CNMNC procedures.

The real question is: which method to use to define an end-member formula? Currently, there are two approaches: (1) STC, which first identifies the dominant end-member charge arrangement and then leads to the dominant end-member composition; (2) the dominant end-member approach.

Keywords

IMA-CNMNCmineral formulaend-membersite total charge
Type
Comment
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 87 , Issue 3 , June 2023 , pp. 505 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Mineralogical Society of the United Kingdom and Ireland

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Footnotes

Associate Editor: Sergey V Krivovichev

References

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