Home > Type Localities II – August 5 > MS1628 Aërinite

Aërinite - Sold


Aërinite is a complex calcium sodium iron aluminum magnesium silicate. Aërinite has a distinctive sky blue color. Catalan painters used aërinite for pigment in the 9th-15th centuries. Von Lasaulx (1876) named the mineral using Greek root aerinos, for sky blue. Other mineralogists of the 19th century debated its origin and its purity, leaving its species status in question. When Azambre & Monchoux (1988) found aërinite a century later in France, they characterized the mineral and re-affirmed its species status. Aërinite samples are very fine-grained, so much so that Rius et al. (2004) took samples to a synchrotron to solve its crystal structure. Rius et al. (2009) studied the mineral further, explaining its blue color with an electronic charge transfer mechanism between Fe2+ and Fe3+.

Compact blue massive aërinite comprises the bulk of this specimen, admixed with fine-grained tan-brown zeolites. This specimen was part of the Charles Trantham (1936-2020) estate and a vintage Shale's label accompanies this specimen. Interestingly, the Shale's label shows no ZIP code, implying a date of 1963 or earlier.