Home > Continental Europe – December 31 > MS0859 Hausmannite

Hausmannite - Sold


Hausmannite is a double oxide of manganese, related to spinel. While spinel is cubic, the distortion of the structure by manganese lowers the symmetry to tetragonal in hausmannite. The mineral name honors Friedrich Ludwig Hausmann (1782-1859), Professor of Mineralogy, University of Göttingen, Germany. (Turner, 1928; Haidinger, 1831). This is a nice specimen, with sharp pseudo-octahedral crystals to 6 mm on a matrix of various manganese oxides ("wad'). There is an old German script label that accompanies this piece. This is the type locality for hausmannite. This specimen was part of the personal collection of Ralph Merrill, proprietor of the prolific mail order business Minerals Unlimited. Merrill''s collection card and label also ship with the specimen.