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Formula: KNaCaSi4O10
Inosilicate (chain silicate), litidionite group
Crystal System: Triclinic
Specific gravity: 2.63 measured, 2.63 calculated
Hardness: 5½
Streak: White
Colour: Transparent colourless or light blue
Environments
Enricofrancoite is a new mineral, approved in 2023 and to date (November 2024) reported only from the type
locality.
Localities
At the type locality, the Enricofrancoite type locality, Ottaviano, Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, Italy,
enricofrancoite is a new litidionite group member found as the
product of high-temperature alteration of hosting silicates with the enrichment by
copper-bearing fluids at the rock–fumaroles interface related to the 1872
eruption of the Somma–Vesuvius volcano, southern Italy. It occurs as euhedral and platy crystals or crusts together with
litidionite, tridymite,
wollastonite and aluminium- and
iron- bearing diopside,
kamenevite, perovskite,
rutile, titanium-rich
magnetite and colourless silicon-glass. Single crystals of
enricofrancoite are transparent colourless or light blue with a vitreous lustre
(MM 88.3.277–287).
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