Encyclopedia of Japanese Minerals (Go to Intro Page)
by Alfredo Petrov
Minerals Starting with "S"
SABUGALITE (rin-arumi-uran-seki)
Tottori: In oxide zone of an epigenetic uranium deposit in Pliocene lacustrine basal conglomerate overlying granitic rock at the Tohgoh mine.
SADANAGAITE (sadanaga-senseki)
Ehime: (The material from Yuge island originally described as "sadanagaite" - IMA# 1980-027 - has been renamed "potassic-sadanagaite"(qv).)
Gifu: True sadanagaite (as redefined) has its type locality at Nogohakusan (Nogodani???) in Neo-mura, in marble with periclase. Also reported (Gunnar Farber) as long prismatic glassy crystals to 4mm from Mitsuka in Kasuga-mura, with orange-brown magnesiosadanagaite zones. Complete isomorphous series to magnesiosadanagaite.
SAFFLORITE (safuro-koh)
Iwate: Fe-rich safflorite occurs in the Nippo chalcopyrite-cubanite orebody in skarn at the Kamaishi mine.
Yamaguchi: Fukumaki mine.
SAKURAIITE (sakurai-koh)
Hokkaido: In the Izumo vein of the Toyoha mine with wurtzite, sphalerite and kesterite; and also in the Sorachi vein.
Hyougo: The type locality of this rare copper-indium sulfide, the indium analogue of kesterite, is the Sendju-hon-hi black-banded hydrothermal quartz vein in the Ikuno mine, where it occurs as greenish steel grey or yellowish steel-grey (olive grey with reddish or purplish tint on polished surface), metallic, fine-grained masses to 0.3mm, with no cleavage, intimately associated with stannite, and as exsolution lamellae to 0.5 x 0.03 mm in the stannite, as a discontinuous band of irregular width (up to 1.5cm) on the border between a stannite mass and a sphalerite veinlet. The stannite can also contain petrukite inclusions. Other associated species are chalcopyrite, cassiterite, matildite, cobaltoan arsenopyrite, quartz and calcite. (On polished surface, nonpleochroic, with reflectivity between stannite and sphalerite; a little softer than stannite (H 4).) Two rough analyses gave Cu 23, Zn 10, Fe 9, Ag 4, In 17, Sn 9, S 31; and Cu 21, Zn 14, Fe 5, Ag 3.5, In 23, Sn 4, S 30.
SAL AMMONIAC (enka-anmon-seki)
Not uncommon on burning dumps at coal mines in various parts of Japan, and also from volcanic fumaroles.
Fukuoka: Ohtani coal mine.
Hokkaido: Komagatake volcano.
Kagoshima: Sakurajima volcano.
SAMARSKITE-(Y) (samarusukii-seki)
Aichi: Aotoriyama.
Fukushima: Crystals to 12cm (Geological Survey, 1970), but usually less than 1cm, in pegmatites with ishikawaite and other rare earth minerals in the Ishikawa district. Divergent subparallel groups of elongated platy prisms with sharp (100) and (010) faces, with pointed (101) or (111) terminations, at Nakano in Ishikawa-machi. Also in pegmatite at the Uzumine feldspar mine. In parallel growth with ferrocolumbite at Shiozawa. (Much of the material labelled "samarskite" from Shiozawa and Wagu areas is actually ishikawaite.)
Gifu: Occurs as rounded grains and pebbles to a few mm across in a cassiterite placer deposit at Takayama in the Naegi district. In miarolytic cavity pegmatites in granite quarries in Hirukawa village.
Ibaragi: Yamanoo.
Shiga: In Tanokamiyama granite pegmatite.
SANBORNITE (sanbohn-seki)
Ehime: At the Furumiya manganese mine (presumably metasedimentary ore??).
SANIDINE (hari-chohseki; sanidin)
Kagoshima: Translucent colorless crystals of sanidine occur in pumice pebbles washed up on many island beaches, such as on southern Yakushima island. Perhaps these were carried on ocean currents from the Philippines.
Okinawa: Translucent colorless sanidine crystals are found sticking out of pumice pebbles washed up on many Okinawa beaches, for example abundantly at Hentona. It is possible that these were carried by ocean currents from the Philippines rather than the closer japanese volcanoes in Kagoshima prefecture.
Saga: (See under Anorthoclase.)
Wakayama: Sharp white crystals to 2.5cm size, some as Carlsbad twins, are found loose, together with beta-quartz crystals, weathering out of the "Kumano porphyry" on an earthy, fault-produced cliff in the forest at Taiji. Colorless transparent "potash-anorthoclase sanidine" from liparite tuff here, analysis corresponding to (K 2.563, Na 1.317, Ca 0.075, Mg 0.008) (Al 4.194, Fe''' 0.005, Si 11.838) apfu, with 0.03 wt% P2O5 (Kimizuka, 1932; in DHZ). (Same material???) Sanidine also at Ouike (same place? Misread kanji?)
SANTABARBARAITE (santabaabara-seki)
Hyougo: The oxidized yellowish brown nodules of "amorphous Fe''' phosphate of vivianite composition" from various localities near Seishin-chuo subway station in Kobe (qv Vivianite) are likely santabarbaraite-bearing. Formed by oxidation of vivianite nodules in upper Pliocene clay beds of the Osaka group.
SAPONITE (sapoh-seki)
(See also under "Aquacreptite".)
Gumma: Irusugawa, with 0.37 wt% (of what?!).
Iwate: At the Matsuo sulfur-marcasite mine.
Miyagi: A dark green material composed of 0.01 to 0.02mm grains, cementing Tertiary "iron sand" and associated tuff from Nashino and the Moniwa iron mine in Sendai city, was described as "LEMBERGITE" by Toshio Sudo in 1943. Sudo himself concluded in 1954 that this was an iron-rich variety of saponite. Powder XRD lines closely match those of nontronite and montmorillonite, with "some similarity to those of garnierite and genthite" (kaolinite-group impurities?). Hot dilute HCl leaches out (as wt% oxides) Al 0.37, Fe'' 0.84, Mg 1.00, Ca 0.15. (Pleochroic greenish brown - brownish-green; RI 1.56-1.58)
Niigata: "Fe-rich saponite", of soft waxy consistency when fresh, at Maze, in vugs in mid-Miocene olivine pillow basalt, with analcite and many other zeolite species.
Shimane: At Kohnan and at Kumura.
Tottori: At the Wakamatsu chromium mine in the Tari district.
Yamanashi: The Saruhashi iron mine was a co-type locality for the discredited "LEMBERGITE" (qv Miyagi pref.), where it occurs as 0.01 to 0.02mm grains composing dark green cement between 5mm pebbles in Tertiary "iron sand" conglomerate.
SAPPHIRINE (safirin)
Hokkaido: Sapphirine occurs on Poroshiri-dake in the granulites underlying the Nikanbetsu gabbro complex in the southwestern Hidaka metamorphic belt. An altered granulite xenolith in this gabbro contained an interesting pseudomorph of sapphirine replaced by an aggregate of corundum, spinel and chlorite in its core, surrounded by a rim of paragonite, muscovite and margarite, which was further surrounded by a thin shell of calcic plagioclase and K-feldspar.
SARCOPSIDE (kohrin-seki)
Ibaragi: In a phosphate pegmatite cutting pelitic schists of the Tsukuba metamorphic complex at Yukiiri.
SARKINITE (nikuhi-seki)
Fukushima: In metamorphosed bedded manganese ore at the Gozaisho mine.
SARTORITE (sarutori-koh)
Hokkaido: Reported from the Toya mine, but differs from true sartorite.
SASSOLITE (hohsan-seki)
Gumma: Fumaroles on Asama-yama.
Hokkaido: Fumaroles on Showa-shinzan volcano in the Usu volcanic dome.
Kagoshima: Fumaroles on Iwo-dake volcano on Satsuma-Ioujima.
Kumamoto: A sublimate in a steam well in the Yunotani geothermal field in Aso caldera.
Nagano: Fumaroles on Asamayama volcano.
SCAWTITE (sukohto-seki)
Hiroshima: With spurrite and fukalite in skarn at Kushiro.
Okayama: At the Jiro Oye outcrop at Fuka, as colorless microcrystals forming white aggregates with oyelite, calcite, foshagite, xonotlite and bultfonteinite as thin veinlets in spurrite skarn. Sometimes with fukalite. The best crystals are vitreous, light grey to white or colorless, up to 2mm, with bultfonteinite. Also at the Mihara mine.
SCHEELITE (kai-juuseki)
Fukui: A minor accessory mineral in the pyrometasomatic ores of the Nakatatsu mine.
Fukuoka: Adamantine grey or white to yellow, translucent octahedra occur in contact metasomatosed chalcopyrite-bearing hedenbergite skarn where Paleozoic limestone was recrystallized by amphibole granite intrusion at the Sannotake Cu-Fe deposit. Also associated with calcite, bismuthinite and granular grossular in the contact metasomatosed Yokozuru Cu-Au-Bi deposit here. Crystals commonly 3 to 6cm, but can reach 10cm, with p(111)-faces most prominent; e(101)-faces universally present but smaller and imperfect; o(102)-, s(113)- and c(001)-faces rare and insignificant. Crystals often coated with pyrite or chalcopyrite. Often partially altered to ferberite ("reinite"), becoming dark brown to black, dull to vitreous, almost opaque. Sannotake was the first scheelite locality in Japan; several crystals were collected in 1885 and named "TRIMONTITE" (from "Sannotake" = "Three Mountains"). Later shown to be scheelite containing (wt% oxides) Fe''' 2.01, Mn''' 0.50, Al 0.18.
Fukushima: Scheelite is found with epidote and quartz in pyrometasomatic ore at the Yaguki mine. The scheelite contains NaCl-rich fluid inclusions apparently formed between 220 and 330 degrees C.
Gifu: With ferberite (qv) in a white massive pneumatolytic quartz vein at the Ebisu mine. Small amounts of white opaque grains, some with p faces, sometimes with a thin black coating, in the pyrometasomatic Pb-Zn ores of the Kamioka mine.
Hiroshima: With feldspars, natrolite and phenakite in fluorite-biotite skarn at the Mihara fluorite mine.
Hyougo: In the xenothermal polymetallic Kanagase orebody of the Ikuno mine, scheelite occurs as transparent pale brown to to brownish yellow and reddish brown, complex modified octahedral crystals to a few mm, with lustrous (111) and (101) faces, associated with wolframite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite and stannoidite in drusy cavities in a quartz vein. At another xenothermal polymetallic deposit, the Akenobe mine, lustrous yellow to brown transparent octahedral crystals to 3.5cm, showing combinations of (101), (111) and (313) faces, rarely twinned on (100), are associated with wolframite, pyrite and chalcopyrite in quartz vein cavities. The Natsume nickel mine had scheelite hydrothermally introduced into nickel-bearing serpentine, a rather unusual environment for scheelite.
Ibaragi: In skarn at the Kagata mine (closed 1957).
Iwate: Minor amounts of scheelite are present in the pyrometasomatic iron ores of the Kamaishi mine. In a quartz vein which was mined for both gold and scheelite at the Setamai mine. Also in the Iwai mine.
Kagoshima: In "pegmatitic" wolframite-tourmaline-Bi-Au-bearing peribatholithic quartz veins at the Miyanoura mine on Yakushima island.
Kyoto: Steep pyramidal crystals to 2.5cm in pyrite-beryl-bearing quartz veins at the Otani tungsten mine. Massive scheelite here is normally creamy white, sometimes tinged lemon-yellow by partial alteration to tungstite. Crystals are not common, normally orange, sometimes white or deep brown. Reported from Sakura (Tamba prov.) by Wada (1904). Also from the Kaneuchi mine and the Wachi mine.
Miyagi: A little scheelite was produced from the auriferous quartz veins of the Shishiori gold mine.
Yamaguchi: At the Sanjou copper mine, greenish (due to malachite inclusions) octahedral crystals to 7cm size, some of them very good, occur in massive grossular in a contact metasomatosed deposit. At the Kuga mine, yellowish brown aggregates of transparent to translucent, granular crystals are associated with quartz, pyrite, chalcopyrite and apatite in a quartz vein cutting a contact metasomatosed deposit. Very abundant at the Kiwada mine, one of the worldÕs richest scheelite deposits, as light orange, rounded octahedral xls to 3.5cm in vugs and embedded in quartz veins, and massive and disseminated in surrounding skarn; some have been cut as cabochons. This mine closed in 1992, and is now a tourist mine. In skarn at the Kagata mine, which closed around 1957 (Error for Ibaragi-ken Kagata mine????). At the Ofuku (Yamato) mine, in skarn at contact between granite and Mesozoic sedimentary rock, white translucent scheelite crystals to 6cm are associated with primary calcite, quartz, orthoclase, garnet, actinolite, ilvaite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, and secondary bornite, malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and cuprotungstite. Crystals exhibit p and o faces, and small but distinct e faces, plus relatively big, horizontally striated, s faces. Large decimeter-size masses of "green scheelite" from here, and dark green to light greenish crystals to 6cm, often mislabelled "cuproscheelite", are in reality scheelite partially altered to cuprotungstite, with a reduction in specific gravity. Enough scheelite remains for the mass to display the characteristic bright blue fluorescence under SW UV. With chalcopyrite in diorite at the Yakuohji copper-cobalt mine.
Yamanashi: The second locality in Japan where scheelite was discovered was in a quarry worked for quartz crystals at Sakasagawa, which produced yellowish crystals with rough faces, and translucent brownish yellow crystals with combinations of smooth p and e faces. The Komagatake (Kaikomagatake) mine is well-known to collectors for its well-developed octahedral scheelite crystals in a pneumatolytic quartz vein in granite, although commercial production here was negligible. Excellent specimens were found by intrepid collectors in 2005 - bright orange, sharp steep pyramidal crystals to 6cm long. With ferberite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite and mica in vugs in pegmatitic quartz veins in granite in the Kurasawa and Otomezaka and Kanayama deposits of the Otome mine (the type locality for "reinite", the prolific pseudomorphs of ferberite (qv) after scheelite). Unaltered scheelite from this district is translucent or opaque, yellow or light oily brownish, sometimes well-crystallized but with rough faces, often exhibiting scalene-triangular etch figures. Analyses show impurities of silica (< 9 wt%) and FeO (to over 3wt%). Altered crystals are coated with a yellowish green powder (tungstite and/or ferritungstite).
SCHNEIDERHOEHNITE (shunaidahhehn-seki)
Ouita: Sharp, highly lustrous crystals to almost 1mm form druses at the Kiura mine.
SCHOEPITE (sheppu-seki)
Kagoshima: Tarumi mine.
Okayama: Tsurugisan and Kenzan and Akura (overlap/duplication???).
SCHORL (tetsu-denki-seki)
(Note that few adequate analyses exist, and that "schorl" is commonly used as a general name for black tourmalines, so probably some of the material listed here is really dravite, foitite, etc., or a zoned combination of several tourmaline species.)
Fukushima: From Shiozawa and elsewhere in the Ishikawa district, schorl occurs as crude columnar, pitch black crystals to 1 meter long and 7cm thick in granite pegmatites with quartz, microcline and muscovite. Exceptional crystals up to 4 meters(!) long were known (Geological Survey, 1970). Typically less than 10cm long, and these smaller crystals are more complex, with more sharply defined faces. Thin prismatic crystals with a brilliant pitchy luster at Ishiguro. Also in granitic pegmatite at Fusamata.
Gifu: Radiating sheaves of acicular black tourmaline used to be found at Takayama. Also as well-terminated black crystals loose in river sand.
Ibaragi: Simple pitch-black crystals, showing only the trigonal prism and common rhombohedron faces, embedded in pegmatite quartz at Yamanoo.
Kagoshima: Simple prismatic black crystals, with a variety of small rhombohedral terminal faces, associated with quartz and mica in the Takakuma-yama Paleocene or Eocene granitic intrusion. Collectors have also reported rare blue tourmalines from Saru-goya here (species unknown).
Kumamoto: Ichifusayama.
Miyazaki: Shishikawa.
Nagano: At Goshodaira, in granite pegmatite as isolated xls to 6cm across, with very short, rough prism faces coated by quartz and muscovite, some as composite crystals composed of 2 or 3 individuals.
Ouita: At the Obira mine, as sheaf-like and globular aggregates of black prismatic to acicular xls to 5cm long, sometimes associated with arsenopyrite xls, in quartz in a contact metasomatosed deposit. At the Sensuji section of this mine, with small double-terminated quartz xls. Many needles are zoned, with schorl surrounded by dravite and foitite.
Yamanashi: Free-standing schorl xls with brilliant luster, to 2.5cm long and 9mm thick, at Kurobera and elsewhere on Kinpuu-zan. Radiating sheaves of acicular crystals are locally called "karakasa-ishi" ("umbrella stone"). Analysis of a zoned tourmaline from granite at Kurobera: Dark blue central zone corresponds to (Na 0.722, Ca 0.085) (Fe'' 2.080, Al 0.950, Mg 0.374, Fe''' 0.073, Ti 0.044, Mn 0.014) Al 6, B 2.802, Si 6.071, (OH) 2.254 apfu, an olenite-rich schorl; greenish brown outer zone corresponds to (Na 0.693, Ca 0.061) (Fe'' 1.422, Al 0.906, Fe''' 0.732, Mg 0.373, Ti 0.030, Mn 0.018) Al 6, B 2.740, Si 6.036, (OH) 2.174 apfu, an olenite-buergerite-rich schorl (Z. Harada (1939) Zur Kenntnis der japanischen Bormineralien. Jour. Fac. Sci. Hokkaido Univ. ser. IV, 5, 1; in DHZ).
SCHORLOMITE (chitan-zakuro-ishi)
Okayama: As pitch-black masses to 1cm diameter, with bicchulite, biotite and wollastonite at Fuka. Sometimes in collections wrongly identified as "morimotoite" (which is from a different paragenesis at Fuka). (Perhaps = titanian andradite?? (Matsubara 2002).)
SCHWERTMANNITE (shuberutoman-seki)
Gunma: Gumma-tetsu-zan iron mine.
Kagoshima: In microbial biomineralization in geothermal field in the Makurazaki area, with jarosite, opal and carbonates.
SCORODITE (sukorodo-ishi; sukorodo-seki)
(Some japanese scorodite is Al-rich.)
Aomori: Osoresan.
Gifu: At the Ebisu mine in oxidized pneumatolytic veins with arsenopyrite, cassiterite, wolframite and topaz. Well known also from the nearby Tohgane mine, in oxidized pneumatolytic W-Mo-Bi-bearing quartz veins, with arsenopyrite, some as light greenish massive epimorphs of arsenopyrite. At the Ichiyanagi tungsten mine in the same district, as wavy greenish crusts on the surface of loellingite masses outcropping in the middle zone of an exposed greisen vein.
Hokkaido: Pale green aluminian scorodite, with 20% of the Fe positions replaced by Al, forms veins with limonite and opal in "bog iron" beds in the Kamikimobetsu section of the Kimobetsu mine. Described in 1949 under the unnecessary name "aluminoscorodite". Analysis gave (as wt% oxides): As 48.85, Al 5.11, Fe''' 27.91, Fe'' 1.5, Mg 0.15, Ca 0.40, Mn''+Cu 0.03, Si 0.01 water 15.14. (D 2.23; RI 1.741 - 1.767; no pleochroism.)
Kagoshima: Scorodite forms beautiful pale green to bluish to sea green spherules from 0.3 to 1mm, arranged in strings or stalactitic aggregates to 1cm long in oxide zone vugs of nansatsu-type ore at Nippon MiningÕs Kasuga gold mine.
Kyoto: At Engoyama, on Gyoujayama, and at Narabigaoka.
Okayama: With other arsenates in limonitized arsenopyrite-sphalerite ore in skarn at the Ohgibira mine.
Ouita: The Kiura mine is a world-class locality for relatively large scorodite crystals, although little known to collectors outside Japan. Transparent vitreous, deep blue to greenish grey to dark green, leak-green or dark brown, sharp octahedra to 1.2cm (although usually less than 3mm), with the dominant (111) faces modified by small (120), (001), (011), (100), (201) and (211) faces, sometimes striated, occur in fractures and cavities in an arsenopyrite-quartz vein and in vugs in compact limonite, sometimes with parasymplesite. Less commonly colorless, yellowish green or brownish green.
Yamaguchi: Kitabira mine.
Yamanashi: Abundant at the Suzukura arsenic mine, with other arsenates.
SCORZALITE (tetsu-tenran-seki)
Gifu: In granite pegmatites in Hirukawa village.
Ibaragi: With triphyllite and rockbridgeite in a pegmatite cutting pelitic schist at Yukiiri.
Shiga: Tanokamiyama pegmatites.
Yamaguchi: Hinomaru-Nako mine.
SEKANINAITE (tetsu-kinsei-seki)
(Often in older references as "Fe-rich cordierite".)
Fukuoka: In pegmatite at Kotohge, muscovite pseudomorphs after sekaninaite crystals to over 7cm sometimes still contain unaltered sekaninaite in their centers.
Fukushima: From Sugama and Kitasugama in the Ishikawa district, "Fe-rich cordierite" in granite pegmatite cutting gneissic hornblende-biotite granodiorite is actually sekaninaite, analysis corresponding to (Fe'' 1.017, Mg 0.506, Na 0.437, Mn 0.174, K 0.106, Ca 0.002) (Al 3.820, Fe''' 0.090) (Si 4.924, Al 0.076) O 18 (A. Miyashiro (1957) Amer. Jour. Sci., 255, 43; in DHZ).
Kagoshima: At the Hanaoka W-Mo-Bi-Au mine (presumably pneumatolytically altered rocks).
Kyoto: Ide.
Mie: In pegmatitic granophyre of the "Kumato (Kumano??) acidic rocks", Kumano city.
Nara: Intergrown with blue ominellite (qv) in granite porphyry along the Misen river in Tenkawa-mura.
Toyama: The possible high-temperature dimorph of sekaninaite - the Fe''-analogue of indialite (qv) - is found in Unazuki-machi.
Yamaguchi: Ishii.
Yamanashi: "Fe-rich cordierite" (really sekaninaite) as regular micropegmatitic intergrowths with quartz: 56.2 volume% quartz, 43.8% sekaninaite, i.e. simultaneous crystallization, in the Sasago pegmatite, analysis corresponding to (Fe'' 1.429, Na 0.762, Mg 0.246, K 0.127, Mn 0.113, Ca 0.012) (Al 3.978, Fe''' 0.090) Si 4.827 O 18 (H. Shibata (1936) Jap. Journ. Geol. Geog., 13, 205; in DHZ). Similar intergrowths in the Dohshi pegmatite had 57.2 volume % quartz, 42.8% sekaninaite.
"SELENIUM" (shizen-seren)
(Reported "native selenium" from japanese volcanos needs verification and may well be a mistake for fumarolic selenian native SULFUR (qv).)
SEMSEYITE (semusei-koh)
Saitama: Small crystals grew on granular galena xls at the Chichibu mine.
SEPIOLITE (sepio-ishi; sepio-seki)
Fukuoka: Vuggy, greyish white, parallel fibrous aggregates to over 11cm in Sasaguri-machi. At Kanatake and at Wakita (in same Sasaguri-machi???).
Fukushima: Sawai.
Kyoto: Ou'eyama Ni-Fe-Co mine.
Niigata: Akatani iron mine.
Tochigi: Kuzuu.
SERANDITE (seran-seki)
Akita: Ezuri mine.
Iwate: Serandite occurs as rose-red tabular xls to 1cm at the Tanohata mine in low-grade Mn ores with Mn-rich aegirine, Mn-rich arfvedsonite, quartz, rhodonite, albite, natronambulite and yoshimuraite; and also in a pegmatitic vein with albite, microcline, quartz and natronambulite.
SERPIERITE (sahpieri-seki)
Hyougo: Beautiful sky-blue microsprays of acicular serpierite xls compose crusts at the Kabasaka mine.
Shiga: With aurichalcite and devilline at Haiyama hill.
Shizuoka: Kawazu mine.
SHANDITE (shando-koh)
Niigata: Described from Himekawa in 1998, from a rather unusual environment for shandite: minute aggregates associated with galena, heazlewoodite, and a nickel arsenide (maucherite?) in kosmochlore-bearing eckermannite rock. Apparently a relict from ultramafic rocks before serpentinization.
SHIGAITE (shiga-ishi; shiga-seki)
Shiga: Shigaite (named for the prefecture), a rare, hydrous aluminum-manganese-sodium sulfate-hydroxide, occurs as light yellow to yellowish brown, translucent, soft, hexagonal thin tabular crystals to over 2mm, with perfect basal cleavage, much resembling a chlorite. It is found at its type locality, the Ioi mine, as a late-stage secondary mineral formed by migration of Mn"-solutions, without oxidation, in fissures cutting altered rhodochrosite-sonolite-manganosite ore. Other associated species include pyrochroite, jacobsite, hausmannite and galaxite.
SHIROZULITE (shirozu-unmo) (IMA #2001-045)
Aichi: The type locality of this manganous analogue of phlogopite (normal, OH-dominant) is the Taguchi mine, where it occurs as dark reddish brown, transparent vitreous to pearly crystals to 0.5mm, in contact with a vein of Ba-rich K-feldspar, associated with barite, tephroite, rhodochrosite, rhodonite, pyroxmangite, apatite and hausmannite in metamorphosed manganese ore. Magnesium partially replaces manganese. (H 3; D 3.20; no fluorescence; typical micaceous cleavage and elasticity; strongly pleochroic in thin section - pale yellow to pale brown.) (Some of the material previously listed from here as "manganophyllite" is really shirozulite, but much of it is Mn-rich phlogopite (normal, OH-dominant); Caveat emptor!)
"SHUNGITE" (See "CARBON-60")
SIBIRSKITE (shiberia-seki)
Okayama: As a component of a Ca-borate vein averaging 10cm wide (max. 2m), crossing calc-silicate skarn at Fuka. Associated with olshanskyite and parasibirskite in cm-sized massive bands in marble. Rarely also with takedaite, nifontovite, henmilite, pentahydroborite, uralborite. Formed by hydrothermal alteration of takedaite.
SIDERITE (ryoh-tekkoh)
Chiba: At Gojukura in Wada-machi. Siderite concretions locally known as "heso-ishi" ("belly button stones") are collected in the southern Boso peninsula. These apparently grew around thin hydrothermal sulfide chimneys on the seafloor, later filled with Fe oxides, the broken surface expression of which lead to their colloquial name. (both = same place?????)
Ehime: Tiny crystals with calcite and chalcopyrite in vugs in bedded sulfide ore at the Besshi mine.
Fukushima: Fukuoh mine.
Gifu: Olive-brown siderite spheroids to 1cm on Gotomaki hill. Associated with vivianite.
Hokkaido: At the Yuubari (Yuubaridake) manganese mine.
Hyougo: Siderite forms pale brown, flat botryoidal aggregates of rhombohedral crystals on crystalline quartz in cavities in a quartz vein at the Ikuno mine. Brown to pale brown aggregates of flat rhombohedra in parallel growth, and as needle-shaped stalactitic aggregates, in quartz vein vugs at the Akenobe mine.
Kagoshima: A gangue mineral at the Suzuyama tin mine, and also as highly altered "sideritized" wall rock.
Nara: Well-formed equant, dark brown siderite crystals, from 0.5mm and transparent to 4mm and opaque, are aesthetically scattered on light tan matrix in fissures on Kasuga-yama. Also on Wakakusayama.
Niigata: Light brownish yellow, small regular rhombohedra on the surfaces of hematite at the Akadani iron mine. Also at the Mikawa mine.
Ouita: Rhombohedra with curved faces, in aggregates with pyrite at Uchinokuchi.
Shimane: The Ohmori gold-silver mine produced yellowish brown rhombohedra as rosette-like aggregates in which only the edges are visible, as gangue in an epithermal quartz vein, sometimes with chalcopyrite and acanthite.
Tochigi: Botryoidal aggregates of small brown xls with curved faces occur in small quantities on crystalline quartz in vugs in a sphalerite-pyrite-quartz vein at the Ashio mine.
Tokyo: At Shibuya, one of the Tokyo city "downtowns", concretionary masses of siderite replace wood in an alluvial gravel horizon.
NB: Siderite is rarely a minor constituent of the "genno-ishi" pseudomorphs of calcite (qv) after ikaite, which are found in several prefectures.
SIDEROGEL
(uncharacterized amorphous hydrous ferric oxides or oxyhydroxides)
Aomori: In the Ou'age pyrite mine. EDS analysis of the reddish brown gel which hosts the buserite (qv) nodules at the Oppu mine showed Fe-O-Si-Ca-Al-Zn-Mn; perhaps a "siderogel"-hisingerite?
Kagoshima: X-ray amorphous Fe oxide gels are being currently deposited near the beach by coastal bacteria in vesicles in basalt erupted from Inamura-dake on Satsuma-Iou-jima. Amorphous gels are also present with goethite and ferrihydrite in the banded bacterial "zebra" mats deposited from red iron-stained ocean water in the port and around beachfront hot springs.
Miyagi: In the Matsuiwa arsenopyrite mine.
Nagano: Tosu mine.
SIEGENITE (jiigen-koh)
Hokkaido: With carrollite, nickeloan pyrrhotite and olivine in amphibolite gabbro at the Horoman Co-Ni-olivine mine. (NB: Polydymite also reported here; analysis needed to distinguish them.)
Iwate: Kamaishi mine.
Mie: Sparse constituent of metasedimentary caryopilite ore at the Kamo mine.
Saitama: Siegenite of composition Co (Ni 1.68, Co 0.38, Mn 0.16) S 3.79 occurs with pyrite, alabandite, sphalerite, rhodochrosite and kellyite, in manganese ore at the Hirogawara mine.
Tochigi: Rare, in aggregates of rhodonite plus vanadian spessartine produced by contact-metamorphism near a granite intrusion at Itaga.
Tokyo: Minor accessory mineral, as square to anhedral grains to 0.06mm at the Okutama mine, in weakly metamorphosed bedded caryopilite ore where it is the only metallic mineral. Minor Mn replaces Co-Ni, very unusual in siegenite: Co 1.72, Ni 1.19 Mn 0.09 apfu. Only in non-banded portions of the caryopilite ore, associated with rhodochrosite and an unknown pearly white Mn-silicate.
SILLENITE (hoh-souen-seki)
Okayama: Sillenite crystals occur as cubes to 5mm on calcite in vugs in a calcite vein at contact between llimestone and gehlenite-spurrite skarn at Fuka, associated with kusachiite, henmilite, bakerite, tenorite, bultfonteinite, apophyllite, cuspidine and thaumasite.
SILLIMANITE (keisen-seki)
Aichi: Honguusan.
Fukushima: In gneiss of the Abukuma metamorphic belt at Kanougami, with staurolite, almandite, corundum, hercynite and monazite. Nearby at Chinokubo, in pyralspite-annite-oligoclase-quartz gneiss.
Hokkaido: Saruru river.
Iwate: Major component of corundum-bearing sillimanite hornfels at Okita.
Kagawa: Nekoyama.
Mie: Rough, rounded prismatic, pale brown xls to 3cm embedded in white matrix in Owase (Oase) city. Also in Kumano city.
Nagano: Asama volcano.
Nara: At Ikoma and at Ohyagyuu.
Toyama: Brownish white, long prismatic crystals to 2cm, in graphite schist. Also in a cordierite vein traversing polymetamorphosed metapelite, in Unazuki.
Yamaguchi: At Ishii and at Marifu.
SILVER (shizen-gin)
Akita: Mercurian silver, as very rounded crystals to 1mm, was collected in the 1890s at the Innai mine, on tiny crystals of stephanite and quartz. Small grains associated with earthy hematite on quartz in oxide zone of epithermal Au-Ag-Cu-Pb-Zn deposit at the Osarizawa mine.
Fukui: The richest japanese locality for native silver was the Omodani mine, where it occured as dendritic foil and sheets up to 1mm thick in fissures in massive epithermal bornite, in sufficient quantity to give the bornite added value as silver ore. Associated with chalcopyrite, galena and a small amount of argentite.
Gifu: Matted, filiform silver to 1mm, in cavities in quartz and calcite at the Kamioka mine. Also here with veszelyite in decomposed skarn in the Urushiyama orebody.
Hiroshima: Thin plates of native silver are associated with cuprite in a 3m-wide oxidized pneumatolytic copper ore vein crossing a granite quarry on Ikuchi island.
Hokkaido: Curly silver wires and whiskers to 1mm thick form twisted aggregates to 2cm wide on drusy quartz crystals at the Toyoha mine, with arborescent acanthite and electrum, in the pyrite-, galena- and sphalerite-bearing quartz veins (the Tajima and Harima veins) in propylite country rock. Thicker individual wires have been found to several cm long, associated with chalcopyrite and other sulfides. Also at the Kohnomai Au-Ag mine. With rhodochrosite at Ponshikaribetsu.
Hyougo: At the Ikuno mine, silver occurs in the Kanagase orebody as beautiful wires and thin dendritic sheets, sometimes with calcite crystals, in massive bornite and chalcopyrite; and in the Tasei orebody as irregular dendritic aggregates in massive white calcite in xenothermal sphalerite-galena ore. As irregular grey stringers to a few mm in massive ore at the Tada mine.
Iwate: "Electrum" occurs in skarn-hosted chalcopyrite-cubanite ore in the Nippo orebody, associated with a Cretaceous diorite intrusion at the Kamaishi mine. Gold-silver ratios in the "electrum" here range from Au85Ag15 to Au6Ag94, but compositions are more commonly on the silver side of the 50:50 divide.
Kagoshima: Thin flakes at Kago and at Nagano.
Niigata: Small flakes and minute grains of silver and "electrum", associated with argentite and other sulfides, and "adularia", as fracture fillings in epithermal Au-Ag-bearing quartz vein at the Takachi mine. Wire silver intimately associated with acanthite crystals in vugs at Iwade; likewise in Aikawa.
Shimane: The surprisingly argentiferous "fukuishi" andesite at Ohmori contained economic quantities of native silver in granular, lamellar and dendritic habits.
Shizuoka: Silver wires to 1cm long and 1mm thick at the Rendaiji (Kawazu) mine in cavities in black-banded quartz vein. Associated with fine-grained "electrum", argentite and other sulfides. Also at the Seikoshi mine and Toi mine.
Yamaguchi: Jagged plates associated with green secondary Cu minerals at the Ofuku (Yamato) mine.
SJOGRENITE (shyoguren-ishi)
Aichi: Orange-brown, flaky sjogrenite occurs in serpentine at Takenowa. At Yoshikawa, nickel-bearing sjogrenite is found intimately intergrown with its dimorph, pyroaurite, in a variety of habits: flaky crusts, platy, earthy, veins and nodules; associated with brucite in serpentinite.
SKUTTERUDITE (hoh-hi-kobaruto-koh)
Saitama: Kamabuseyama.
Yamaguchi: The arsenic-deficient variety "smaltite" was exploited for cobalt at the Yakuoji mine, where it occured in a vein in granite. "Smaltite" also at the Naganobori mine.
SLAWSONITE (surohson-seki)
Kouchi: Slawsonite with up to 1.5 wt% BaO forms colorless to white, glassy compact masses up to 7cm, fluorescent pink to violet-red in SW UV, associated with celsian, cymrite, grossular, diopside and prehnite in white veinlets cutting rhodingite xenolith in chloritized serpentine derived from ultrabasic rock at Sarusaka (Sarisaka?), the 2nd world locality for this species. Differential weathering leaves exposed rock cut by numerous distinctive mm-wide subparallel trenches. Intimately associated with stronalsite (qv) and pectolite in veinlets cutting basic tuff xenoliths (rodingite) in a serpentinite quarry at Rendai in Kouchi city. Nearby at Engyouji as mm to cm-size compact aggregates of white prisms, fluorescent light red under UV light, as patches and swellings in white veinlets in grey metagabbro. Similarly at Miyanotani. At Kiyosaka, colorless long-prismatic crystals to 5mm, with white pectolite in "vugs" (sic?) in metagabbro.
Niigata: Itoigawa-Ohmi district???
SMITHSONITE (ryoh-aen-koh)
Akita: Brownish white semi-globular masses to 10cm at the Hassei mine.
Gifu: Yellowish white fibrous smithsonite, sometimes coating calcite or as epimorphs after calcite, at the Kamioka mine. As grey crusts on ore at Mozumi. Recently found at the Kamegai mine in partly decomposed arsenopyrite, with adamite (qv) and other zinc arsenates.
Miyagi: Spherical aggregates or botryoidal masses of yellow, yellowish brown, or grey, fine acicular smithsonite crystals occur in fractures and cavities of a sphalerite-bearing quartz vein at the Hosokura mine.
Okayama: In vuggy limonite of oxidized arsenopyrite veins at the Ogibira mine.
Osaka: With wulfenite at the Hirao mine.
Toyama: At the Kamegai mine, colorless crystalline botryoidal crusts, with aurichalcite and malachite.
Yamaguchi: As green crusts to 1cm, with secondary Cu minerals in contact metamorphic ore of the Ofuka deposit. Also at the Kitabira mine.
SONOLITE (sono-ishi; sono-seki)
(Japanese sonolite does not contain significant fluorine replacing OH. Before sonolite was described, some of it was reported as alleghanyite. Quite widespread at japanese Mn mines, mostly in Paleozoic chert formations, associated with rhodochrosite, tephroite, galaxite and pyrochroite. Generally fine-grained prismatic to anhedral crystals < 0.5mm. Commonly exhibits single or lamellar twinning on (011).)
Aichi: Light pinkish brown transparent grains or subhedral xls to 0.5mm richly disseminated in friable granular greyish carbonate-rich matrix at the Taguchi manganese mine. Also at Ishizuka pass.
Fukui: Fujii mine.
Gumma: In the Higashi-Konaka orebody at the Ritou mine, in metamorphosed sedimentary manganese ore which is banded pink, brown and black. Also at the Hagidaira mine, the Konakayama mine, and the Nakanoyama mine.
Hokkaido: Minor sonolite occurs in the Mn-rich sediments metamorphosed by a granite intrusion at the Tatehira mine.
Ibaraki: In banded folded variegated Mn ore at the Iwashita-Kurami mine. Also at Takonomiya. (same place???)
Iwate: Sparingly with kinoshitalite in hausmannite-tephroite ore at the Noda-Tamagawa mine. Better studied sonolite from the Hanawa mine (RI 1.763 - 1.793; D 3.82), with analysis (oxide wt%) Si 22.37, Ti 0.09, Al 2.56, Fe'' 0.93, Mn'' 62.01, Mg 3.45, Ca 0.73, no Ba, and carbonate 4.53, water 3.08, F 0.21.
Kyoto: The Sono mine is the type locality for this manganese analogue of clinohumite. It forms reddish orange, light pinkish brown to dark reddish brown to dark brown and greyish red-brown, dull to vitreous, compact fine-grained masses to 5cm, or prismatic or anhedral grains with no cleavage, associated with rhodochrosite, galaxite, jacobsite and pyrochroite in rhodochrosite-rich black manganese ore. (It does not occur in contact with high-silica minerals like quartz, rhodonite or spessartine.) (Colorless in thin section; H 5.5.) A slightly calcian variety of sonolite occurs at Hokkejino, as light brown to deep brown to deep brownish pink, equant anhedral masses, in pink massive rhodonite banded with tephroite (cation atomic ratio: Mn 7.6, Mg 0.9, Ca 0.4, Fe 0.1). Also here in pink-brown tephroite as bright rose-red masses which are often mistaken for rhodonite (although no rhodonite is associated with it). (no cleavage)
Ouita: At the Kuratomi mine.
Shiga: As a major component of rhodochrosite-sonolite-manganosite ore at the Ioi mine. (Sonolite from here was misidentified as "alleghanyite" in the years before sonolite was described.)
Tochigi: In contact metasomatic bedded rhodochrosite ore at the Kaso mine Some of it might be alleghanyite or have been misidentified as alleghanyite).
Yamaguchi: In metachert at the Kusugi manganese mine, with analysis (oxide wt%) Si 17.23, Ti 0.11, Al 2.62, Fe'' 1.39, Mn 65.93, Mg 0.95, Ca 0.70, carbonate 9.20, water 2.08, no Ba. Also at the Takamori mine. (A bad reference to sonolite at "Vagi" is probably = Wagi-cho (Waki-cho) near Iwakuni city, = Kusugi mine.)
SPESSARTINE (manban-zakuro-ishi)
(Widespread but erratic distribution in japanese metamorphosed bedded Mn deposits, where zoned euhedral crystals are often embedded in massive quartz. Also as fine-grained light orange to light yellowish brown anhedral masses, which don't much look like garnet, in rhodonite and pyroxmangite. Often abundant enough to be considered one of the ore minerals. D = 4.0-4.2; RI = 1.79-1.82)
Aichi: Isolated disseminated crystals, transparent pink to light brown, and dark brown massive at the Taguchi manganese mine, associated with pyroxmangite, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, black Mn-rich biotite. In Ishizuka pass, Yokosuka, as a major component of a late Paleozoic metasedimentary manganese deposit, with nsutite ("yokosukaite"), rhodonite, rhodochrosite and blue fluorapatite. At Kutano as orange crystals with rhodonite and pyrophanite in Mn ore veins in the wall of a biotite schist road metal quarry. Also from Oyamada and Toba. (Toba probably = Ishizuka locality.)
Fukui: Vanadian spessartine, with up to 1.4 wt% V2O3, occurs at the Fujii mine.
Fukushima: Associated with iwakiite in regionally metamorphosed bedded rhodonite ore at the Gozaisho mine. A rare earth-bearing variety, with 3.2 wt% total REE (mostly Y), occurs in pegmatite at Suishohyama. Garnets from elsewhere in the Ishikawa pegmatite district include a series between ferroan spessartine and manganoan almandite, although not many have been analyzed; one analysis gave a molecular composition of about 49% almandine, 41% spessartine, 6% grossular, and 5% pyrope. "Calderitic" spessartine, with ferric iron substitution of aluminum, is found at the Kodaira iron mine, where true calderite garnet also occurs.
Gumma: Fine grained rhodonite-spessartine-tephroite forms the pink to grey ore bands at the Yamabishi mine.
Hokkaido: Abundant with Mn-cummingtonite and pyroxmangite in metamorphosed Mn-rich sediments at the Tatehira mine.
Ibaragi: In the Nagasawa manganese deposit, with rhodonite and pyroxmangite.
Iwate: Stringers of garnet occur in massive rhodonite ore at the Noda-Tamagawa mine. Spectroscope shows Mn, Fe, Ti, As, and traces of Cr, La, Mg, Ni, V. With accessory pyrophanite, barite, allanite, ilmenite, and younger carbonate-neotocite-bementite veinlets.
Kyoto: Orange-brown, light brown to dark brown lustrous crystals and partial crystals to 2cm at Hokkejino, embedded in massive light grey quartz in a metamorphosed low-grade manganese deposit.
Nagano: Lustrous, deep reddish brown, almost black, single dodecahedral xls of spessartine to 1.5cm (average 7mm) across, with combinations of (211) and (100) faces, very narrow subordinate (110) faces bevelling the edges, weather out of vuggy andesite and andesitic obsidian at Wada-tohge. Faces may display spiral growth hillocks. Crystals, although rarely perfectly euhedral, can be found loose in a sandy swamp, often still partly coated with remnants of pale volcanic rock. Have occasionally been suspected of being manganoan almandine, but an analysis gave a molecular composition of roughly 54% spessartine, 39% almandine. Have been used in jewellery without cutting.
Tochigi: At the Kaso mine with manganoan tremolite or other minerals. An ore mineral, with rhodonite and manganogrunerite, at the Kyuurazawa manganese mine. Also on Yokoneyama. Vanadium-bearing spessartine at Itaga.
SPHALERITE (sen-aen-koh)
Akita: Black octahedra, combinations of positive and negative tetrahedra, usually with narrow faces truncating the corners, associated with chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena and calcite in drusy cavities in epithermal quartz veins at the Daira mine. Brown translucent to deep brown translucent modified octahedral crystals, with frequent spinel twins to 4cm, are found in cavities with drusy quartz, galena crystals and chalcopyrite crystals in an epithermal quartz vein at the Ani mine. At the Kayakusa section here, yellow subtransparent to brown translucent crystals to 10cm, with lamellar twinning; also often as massive bands, younger than chalcopyrite, older than galena, pyrite, quartz and calcite. At the nearby Sayama mine, very dark brown to translucent brownish red or deep red-brown, very modified cubotetrahedral crystals to 7.5cm contain iron, manganese and cadmium. Many years ago there was a find of a pocket of spectacularly large dark brown crystals here, two of which reached over 20cm(!) (one of these is now in the Geological Survey Museum; several somewhat lesser pieces went to foreign museums). Yellowish-brown to brown, opaque, octahedral sphalerite crystals to over 8cm, with rough dull faces, together with chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena and calcite occur in drusy cavities in epithermal quartz veins at the Osarizawa mine. Dark brown to black tetrahedral crystals averaging 2cm, some with spinel-law twinning, occur with chalcopyrite, galena, pyrite and calcite in drusy cavities in epithermal quartz vein at the Arakawa mine. Also important at the Hanaoka mine. Analysis of a very Fe-poor sphalerite at the Ainonai mine gave (Zn 1.01, Fe 0.001) S (Harada, 1954; in DHZ).
Aomori: At the Funauchi mine, dark brown euhedral crystals, with dominant (110) and (111) faces, were found with galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite and minor barite in drusy vugs in epithermal, fissure-filling quartz veins in Miocene dacite and tuff. Also important at the Oppu mine.
Fukui: Black tetrahedral xls reaching 5cm on edge occur in cavities in epithermal quartz vein of the Omodani copper-lead-zinc mine. In the Bandoujima mine, rough sphalerite crystals with triangular striations on indistinct faces are associated with pyrite in cavities in an epithermal quartz vein. The major ore mineral in clinopyroxene-bustamite-andradite skarns in the Nakayama orebody at the Nakatatsu mine (ore average 5.2% Zn).
Fukushima: Black tetrahedral crystals in drusy cavities of an epithermal quartz vein with galena, pyrite and chalcopyrite at the Akabane mine. Tetrahedral crystals up to 4cm, some with spinel-law twinning, associated with quartz crystals and chalcopyrite in drusy cavities in epithermal quartz vein in the Donsuiwa mine.
Gifu: Black or dark brown tetrahedral crystals to 3.5cm (average 1cm) on edge, iron-rich, grew in cavities with calcite and quartz in contact metasomatized hedenbergite-andradite-calcite skarn in the Kamioka zinc-lead mine. Also here with much hedenbergite, and minor epidote, chlorite, calcite, quartz and ilvaite, in the radial-concentric "tree-ring" mokuji-type ore; and with galena, calcite and quartz in the Shiroji-type ore.
Hokkaido: Brown to dark brown, fine- to coarse-grained sphalerite containing up to 0.3% indium is still being mined on the 300m level of the Sorachi vein in the Toyoha mine. It is banded with chalcopyrite. A frequent accessory mineral in the manganese-silver ores in rhodochrosite veins crossing Tertiary volcanosedimentary rocks; relatively abundantly at the Imai-Ishizaki mine, more rarely at the Inakuraishi mine. Likewise at the Yakumo mine, where it occurs in beautiful banded structures with pyrite, galena and variegated pink rhodochrosite. Similarly banded with pink rhodochrosite at the Ou'e mine. Indium-tin-rich sphalerite from the polymetallic Ohkubo vein of the Suttsu mine holds 2.6 to 8.4 wt% In (corresponding to 2 to 9 molecular % roquesite in solid solution) and 1.8 to 4.3 wt% Sn (corresponding to 2 to 4 molecular % stannite in solid solution) (Shuji Ono, et al. (2004) Resource Geology, 54, 4, 453-464).
Ishikawa: Aggregates of black tetrahedral crystals, some showing lamellar or spinel-law twinning, associated with chalcopyrite, pyrite, jamesonite and barite in cavities in a sphalerite-chalcopyrite-pyrite-quartz vein at the Kuradani mine, notably in the Fudohjima section.
Miyagi: Small, brown to deep brown, tetrahedral crystals in drusy cavities of quartz vein in Miyazaki mine. At the Hosokura mine, deep brown octahedral crystals, some with spinel-law twinning, associated with calcite in drusy cavities in epithermal quartz veins; also in quartz veins as bands alternating with grey fluorite; and as deep brown, massive radial aggregates of acicular crystals a few cm long, associated with minor galena, pyrite, colorless fluorite and rare wurtzite, and replacing wurtzite. (One study showed all the "wurtzite" tested here to be sphalerite pseudomorphic after wurtzite.)
Niigata: Transparent yellowish brown to brown crystals up to 15cm(!) In drusy cavities of an epithermal quartz vein with galena and chalcopyrite at the Shiraita mine. Yellowish brown crystals, sometimes transparent, often coated with a film of chalcopyrite, is associated with quartz, chalcopyrite and galena at Maze.
Okinawa: One of the dominant minerals presently being deposited in sulfidic chimneys of the "Jade" seafloor hydrothermal field, Izena cauldron, with barite. Translucent red, anhedral masses; also as colorless, pale brown or pale orange euhedral xls; or rare pseudomorphs after barite. In polished section, may be seen as skeletal or sawtooth intergrowths with chalcopyrite, and often with triangular inclusions of "isocubanite disease".
Ouita: Deep grey, complex tetrahedral crystals to 6cm are found together with quartz xls, prismatic arsenopyrite xls and greenish-grey acicular tourmaline in cavities in quartz in the pneumatolytically metasomatosed ore of the Obira mine. Opaque brown octahedral crystals to about 3cm, often twinned, at Uchinokuchi.
Saitama: At the Chichibu mine, dark brown xls to 6mm have been found impaled on gold wires.
Shimane: Yellow to dark brown crystals, sometimes transparent, often with rough faces thinly encrusted with acanthite, occurs with siderite at Omori. In fissures in green tuff at Udo, with other sulfides and zeolites.
Shizuoka: Brown tetrahedral xls, often showing spinel-law twinning, in drusy cavities of epithermal quartz vein bearing chalcopyrite and pyrite, cutting through rhyolite at the Taihei mine.
Tochigi: At the Ashio mine, drusy cavities in chalcopyrite ores of the hydrothermal replacement Kajika orebody produced black, short-prismatic sphalerite crystals of the Fe-rich "marmatite" variety, often of hexagonal habit by repetitive spinel-law twinning (even as tripod-like groups), associated with chalcopyrite (sometimes in parallel growth), pyrite, quartz and tabular apatite crystals. An analysis gave (Zn 0.76, Fe 0.25) S, with 0.35 wt% Cu (Harada, 1936; in DHZ). Small amounts in rhodonite-manganogrunerite-spessartine manganese ore at the Kyuurazawa mine.
Wakayama: Sphalerite, together with galena and chalcopyrite, replaces 3.5cm Yoldia shell fossils in concretions in Kushimoto-cho.
Yamagata: Pale brown transparent crystals in druse with quartz and chalcopyrite in epithermal quartz vein cutting altered andesite at the Karatoya mine. Dark brown octahedral crystals in epithermal quartz vein at the Iwanezawa mine. Analysis of low-Fe sphalerite from Hozawa gave (Zn 0.98, Fe 0.03) S (Harada, 1936; in DHZ).
SPINEL (senshoh-seki: supineru)
Akita: Chromian spinel occurs with forsterite in lherzolite xenoliths in the Ichinomegata maar crater.
Ehime: With magnesiosadanagaite in skarn on Yuge island. With sadanagaite in skarn on Myoujin island.
Gifu: Black octahedrons to 2mm in marble at the Kasuga mine. Reported from the Kamioka mine.
Hokkaido: Chromian spinels ("picotite") with pyroxene in peridotites at Horoman and at Horoshiridake. Chromian spinel occurs with forsterite and chromite (qv) (Cr/Cr+Al = 30 to 70) in harzburgite in the Iwanaidake peridotite.
Iwate: In kotoite-bearing dolomite marble at the Neichi mine (Kamineichi), associated with clinohumite. Also from Kebaraichi and from Nejoh.
Okayama: Chromian spinel in contact-metamorphosed serpentinites derived from dunite of the Tari-Misaka ultrabasic complex was worked at the Takase mine as low-grade chromium ore. The Nanago orebody here was a 40x210x25 meter chromitite rock. Harzburgites here do not contain significant Cr.
Ouita: A component of fine-grained black emery vein at the Kiura (Shinkiura) emery mine.
Shizuoka: Chromian spinel in basanitic lava from Nanzaki volcano on the Izu peninsula.
SPIONKOPITE (supionkohpu-koh)
(Perhaps some of the reports of "blaubleibender covellite" might be spionkopite. See under Yarrowite.)
SPURRITE (supah-seki)
Fukushima: At Tadano, spurrite and gehlenite are the primary high-temperature phases in a skarn xenolith in andesite. Now largely altered to wadalite (qv), xonotlite, hibschite, etc.
Hiroshima: With scawtite and fukalite in skarn at Kushiro.
Okayama: Massive crystalline, translucent, usually milky white or grey, sometimes violet or purple, rarely blue. Sometimes feels waxy. Major component of high-temperature zoned calc-silicate skarn at Fuka, where it forms a band over 10m wide of altered gehlenite-spurrite skarn along the contact of limestone and a fine-grained quartz-monzonite intrusion. The most colorful spurrites occur in the vicinity of a post-skarn andesite dike, and the purple variety is sometimes cut into cabochons for rare gem collectors. Associated with gehlenite, bicchulite, hillebrandite, perovskite, rankinite, kilchoanite and other species.
STANNITE (oh-shaku-koh; oh-shakkoh)
Hokkaido: As micro inclusions in chalcopyrite (whence "stannian chalcopyrite") in banded sphalerite-chalcopyrite ore in the Sorachi vein at the Toyoha mine; also with teallite, marcasite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite and rhodostannite in fractures and cavities in pyrite-sphalerite-wurtzite-galena ore on the 500m level of the Sorachi vein. Indium-bearing stannite occurs in the Ohkubo vein of the Suttsu mine. "Stannite-chalcopyrite solid solutions" here may be stannite microinclusions in chalcopyrite?
Hyougo: At the Ikuno mine, with micro-inclusions of petrukite and exsolution lamellae of sakuraiite, in a banded grey hydrothermal quartz vein. Bands of impure compact bronze-colored stannite up to 3cm thick, mixed with chalcopyrite and tetrahedrite, alternate with bands of chalcopyrite and bornite. Impure stannite also occurs at the Sakura mine.
Kagoshima: In the Nishisuzuyama Pb-Zn-Sb-Sn mine, where it was more abundant than cassiterite.
Kyoto: Complex rounded crystals to 7mm in white quartz vein with sphalerite at the Otani tin-tungsten mine and other dumps and exposed veins on Gyojayama.
Miyazaki: An ore mineral at the Osuzu Sn-As mine. Visible by ore microscopy from the Matsuo mine, as reaction rims around cassiterite, with fine-grained yellow sphalerite.
Okayama: At the Konjoh mine, with cassiterite, chalcopyrite and quartz; partially replaced by stannoidite.
Ouita: Octahedral twinned crystals to several cm at the Houei tin mine. Also reported from the Obira mine.
Shimane: With cassiterite and tellurian canfieldite (qv) at the Tsumo mine.
STANNOIDITE (katsu-shakkoh)
Hokkaido: Shin-Ohtoyo Cu-Au deposit ((see also emplectite, colusite)).
Hyougo: Stannoidite occurs as dark brown, fine-grained massive aggregates with secondary gypsum crystals in fractures in chalcopyrite-bearing quartz vein, and in drusy scheelite-wolframite-chalcopyrite-pyrite-sphalerite-bearing quartz veins, from the xenothermal polymetallic Kanagase orebody of the Ikuno mine. Also massive, with chalcopyrite and quartz, in the Nanten vein in this orebody. As yellowish brown metallic granular aggregates to 3mm with chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena, bornite and quartz at Hyoutanmabu in the Tada mine, Tada-Ginzan. Brownish bronze stannoidite, occasionally as relatively pure masses over 10cm, is associated with orange-brown metallic mawsonite, cassiterite and wolframite at the Akenobe mine. All 3 of these localities are xenothermal Cu-Sn sulfide ores.
Kyoto: The Fukoku mine is a co-type locality for stannoidite. Old specimens from here may be labelled "hexastannite". (Cu-Sn sulfides, xenothermal.)
Okayama: The type locality for this copper-iron-tin sulfide is the Konjoh (Konshoh) Cu-Sn mine, where it was first found on the dump. It forms metallic brass brown (grey with yellow-brown tint in polished section) masses with individual grains up to 1.5mm, with no cleavage, uneven to subconchoidal fracture, closely associated with chalcopyrite, quartz, cassiterite, surrounding and replacing stannite in microscopically banded ore, which also has siderite, galena and tetrahedrite. An analysis gave Cu 37.2, Ag 0.1, Fe 12.5, Zn 1.2, Sn 16.5, S 31.2. (Distinctly pleochroic, light salmon brown to brown, especially in oil; reflectivity similar to stannite; polishing hardness slightly less than stannite; dark brown-grey streak; H 4; HNO3 stains brown and brings out mosaic texture - no reaction with other etchants.) Described in 1969, but had already been known for at least 30 years before that as "brown stannite".
Shimane: In the lower part of the Maruyama Au-Cu-Pb-Zn-W orebody of the Tsumo mine, associated with mawsonite, bornite and chalcopyrite in garnet-wollastonite skarn.
STAUROLITE (juuji-seki)
Fukushima: In non-schistose rocks of the Abukuma metamorphic belt at Kanougami in Furudono-machi, with sillimanite, almandite, corundum, hercynite and monazite.
Toyama: Light brown, isolated, short prismatic staurolite crystals to over 1cm are disseminated in white muscovite as a major constituent of rock at Unazuki hot spring in Unazuki-machi.
STELLERITE
Shizuoka: White to yellowish stellate spherules to 1.5cm across, with crystal terminations, associated with calcite, chabazite, mordenite, celadonite, in altered andesitic agglomerates around Shoubusawa coast. Also in veins with other zeolites in Miocene propylitized andesites at Toishinden.
Yamanashi: Whitish or colorless pearly crystals up to 2.5mm form crusts at Nishijima.
STEPHANITE (zei-ginkoh)
Akita: At the Innai mine, hexagonal thin tabular stephanite crystals to 1cm (but more commonly aggregates of crystals less than 1mm in size), with triangular striations, were found relatively abundantly with crystals of quartz, sphalerite, chalcopyrite and pyrite in vugs in a quartz vein. Stephanite aggregates are sometimes encrusted by acanthite. Fine-grained stephanite also occurs mixed with other sulfides or with native silver as the black "ginguro" bands in massive vein quartz. The best crystals here were probably the finest examples of any silver mineral from Japan.
Gifu: Free-standing crystals up to 5mm in vugs in quartz and calcite at Tochibora, a section of the Kamioka mine.
Hyougo: Rare as mm-size hexagonal platy crystals in the Ikuno mine.
Kagoshima: Microscopic grains at the Kushikino mine.
Niigata: Tabular hexagonal crystals to 3mm with quartz crystals in vugs in quartz veins in the Sado mine.
Ouita: Drusy cavities in chalcedony at the Bajou mine provide steel-black stephanite grains to a few mm across, associated with chalcopyrite.
STERLINGHILLITE (sutahringuhiru-seki)
Fukushima: The dumps of the Gozaisho mine recently (2000) became the second world locality for sterlinghillite, which here forms colorless crystal sheaves to 5mm long, on rhodonite in rhodonite-braunite ore. Associated with brandtite and an unknown Mn-Pb-arsenate.
STERNBERGITE (suterunberugu-koh)
Kagoshima: Fine-grained aggregates to 0.01mm as inclusions in tetrahedrite from the Yunagano Ag-Au mine. Recognizable by its light to dark brown reflection pleochroism by ore microscopy.
Miyazaki: Minute grains included in calcite, and as coatings on tetrahedrite and pyrargyrite, it is one of the main Ag ore minerals at the Ouchi mine. Recognizable in polished sections by its strong reflection pleochroism, light brown and dark chocolate brown.
STEVENSITE (sutebensu-seki)
Gifu: Pink and grey masses in Ibigun.
Mie: At Shiraki, as a white replacement of some fibrous aggregate forming veinlets on slickensides in serpentine.
Yamagata: Ou'hori mine (Ohiri mine -sic).
STIBICONITE (oh-an-ka)
Kagoshima: As yellowish powdery incrustations on stibnite needles and in fractures in a stibnite-bearing quartz vein from the Daiichihinomoto mine.
STIBNITE (ki-an-koh)
Aichi: The Tsugu gold mine produced beautiful stibnite crystals with simple prism faces and pointed terminations, usualy only 1cm or a few cm long, but rarelly even over 30cm(!). Also as loose mats of acicular xls to 1cm in druses in an epithermal pyrite-sphalerite-bearing quartz vein. Sometimes still found as acicular compact masses with pyrite, cinnabar (qv), galena and sphalerite. Tangled bundles of indistinct filiform crystals in vugs at the Iname (Furikusa) mine, coated with a yellow secondary oxide.
Ehime: The worldÕs best and most well-known stibnite specimens were produced at the Ichinokawa mine between 1882-1897 (mostly 1882-1886) but the veins were completely worked out by 1957 and no specimens can be found now, not even micromounts. This mine was worked since AD 698 and 4 tons of Sb from here were alloyed into the bronze of the Great Buddha of Nara in AD 749. Its crystals were described in old japanese mineralogical works as long ago as Kiuchi SekiteiÕs 1773 book "Unkon-shi" - and Kiuchi had a crystal from here in his collection. Groups of prismatic stibnite crystals to over 60cm long (Wada collection), mostly tarnished grey or bluish, associated with nothing except small quartz xls, with occasional small younger calcite xls growing on some of the stibnite faces, grew on drusy quartz in quartz-stibnite veins mostly less than 50cm wide, cutting graphite schist and black phyllite of the Sambagawa metamorphic series, overlain by Cretaceous or Tertiary conglomerate, straddling the great "Median Tectonic Line" fault. Specimens have received intense crystallographic study and 88 faces have been recognized, with the most complex forms being found in the smaller crystals. Largest prism faces are (110) and (010); with (111) as a well-developed terminal face. Some crystals show combinations of (331), (341) and (351) as their principal terminal faces; others have (241) as their principal terminal face; and a few are intermediate between these two groups. The largest crystal found was almost 1 meter long but was laying flat, parallel to the vein, a common occurrence here. Crystals growing at right angles to the wall rock generally reached the opposite wall and so were not terminated; such crystals were often broken or "faulted" by movements in the wall rock, and Ichinokawa was famous for its occasional bent crystals. Diagonal-growing crystals had the best chance to develop good terminal faces. Sometimes as radial needles in fissures in quartz. Also from the nearly horizontal vein at the Yokohi mine nearby, likewise now worked out, came superb compact crystals to over 60cm. Crystals from the Sengabi orebody mostly show hollow cavities along the vertical axis. Stibnite specimens can still be found at the Koboushi mine as veinlets of brilliant, thin flattened prismatic crystals to 1cm long, with minor drusy quartz, forming veinlets 2mm wide in fine-grained, light grey rock.
Fukui: The Akadani mine was originally mined for stibnite in altered rhyolitic rock, although it is much more well-known to collectors for its classic balls of native arsenic crystals.
Gifu: With berthierite in quartz veins at the Kinka mine.
Hokkaido: The obsolete 1955 name "HOROBETSUITE", sometimes supposed to refer to a mixture of stibnite and bismuthinite from the Horobetsu sulfur mine, appears to be an isomorphous series of intermediate varieties. One analysis corresponds to Sb1.11Bi0.89S3.00, corresponding to highly bismuthian stibnite, and the molecular ratio bismuthinite:stibnite varies from 7:3 to 3:7. Small crystals of typical striated prismatic habit occur together with native sulfur and Fe-sulphides. (qv Bismuthinite)
Hyougo: At the Nakase mine, excellent steel-grey complex stibnite xls reach several mm thick and 10cm long as druses in epithermal gold-quartz veins, and sometimes form aggregates associated with younger "nail-head" dolomite xls and drusy quartz, the quartz commonly coating only one side of the stibnite crystals. Also associated with granular gold in white quartz veins.
Kagoshima: Fine acicular xls on quartz xls in druses of an epithermal gold-silver-bearing quartz vein in the Ushio orebody at the Ohguchi mine. A major ore mineral at the west end of the Nishisuzuyama deposit. Acicular stibnite, covered with secondary stibiconite, in a quartz vein at the Dai'ichihinomoto mine.
Kumamoto: Acicular crystals in a quartz vein traversing Cretaceous sandstone at Takahama.
Miyagi: Botryoidal masses with radial fibrous structure and velvety luster, long mistaken for a "feather ore" sulfosalt, at the Hosokura mine.
Miyazaki: Stibnite was the main ore mineral at several mines in the low-temperature peripheral zone of the Osuzuyama district: the Tsukinoko mine, the Hibino mine, the Amatsutsumi mine, the Shiomi mine, the Yashikinoharu section of the Matsuo mine, the Taguchinoharu section of the Osuzu mine; and in the auriferous veins of the Shika mine, and the Tsuboya mine. At the Ouchi Ag-Sb-Au mine, stibnite was the youngest mineral, forming veins to several cm wide cutting across quartz and sulfosalts.
Nara: Kanbe mine.
Ouita: Aggregates of acicular stibnite xls averaging 1cm long are associated with quartz and sericite in a fracture zone in an epithermal gold-silver-quartz vein at the Bajoh mine. As massive concentric shells up to 2cm thick around native arsenic nodules of the Mukuno mine, and in its Miocene andesitic country rock.
Yamanashi: Wada (1904) mentions acicular stibnite as inclusions in quartz from the pneumatolytic quartz-tungsten veins of the Kinpuuzan district. (Peter Zodac (Rocks & Minerals, 1937) describes a 5cm long quartz crystal containing a thin tabular stibnite crystal as an inclusion, from "Kai province"; misidentification???)
STILBITE-Ca (kai-taba-fusseki)
(Many of these occurences have not been analyzed and may have other cations dominating.)
Ehime: With heulandite and mordenite as megacrysts in a biotite andesite dyke at the Makinokawa quarry, and elsewhere in intermediate zone of Kuma-machi andesite, above the datolite-apophyllite zone. Free-standing creamy white crystals to 3cm in vugs up to 20cm wide.
Fukuoka: Sodium-rich stilbite (crystals with irregular terminations) and sodium-rich heulandite form the cement in Tertiary conglomerates in Tsuyazaki-machi.
Gifu: Yellowish bundles of "desmine" crystals as druses covering feldspar in miarolytic cavities in granite quarries in Hirukawa village, and similarly elsewhere in the Naegi district.
Kanagawa: At various places in the Tanzawa mountains, stilbite formed in a low-temperature alteration zone, above the hotter laumontite-wairakite-yugawaralite zone, in Miocene basaltic to andesitic pyroclastic rocks altered by a quartz diorite intrusion. At Kurokura, prismatic stilbite xls to 11mm, exhibiting (001), (110) and (010) faces, form typical sheaf-like or "bow tie" aggregates associated with micro natrolite needles in a quartz vein cutting diorite. Also as pinkish white individual crystals to 4mm forming crusts on larger, colorless quartz xls. Also at Yugawara hot springs.
Mie: Sodium-rich stilbite as sheaflike aggregates to 3cm, colorless to yellow-brown (with phlogopite inclusions), is covered by heulandite and laumontite in Miocene granite at Onigajou (Onigashiro).
Miyagi: Transparent white, 1cm xls at Obara hot spring, associated with calcite and heulandite in vugs in andesite. White stilbite-Ca (Ca:Na = 4:1) occurs in amygdaloidal cavities in upper Miocene dacite dikes at Bomeki.
Nagasaki: Abundant transparent xls to 4mm long form radial aggregates on the walls of amygdules in altered basalt agglomerate exposed on the seashore at Chojabaru. Associated with chabazite, thomsonite, levyne-Na, erionite-Na, natrolite. Also on Fukue island.
Shizuoka: Stilbite xls grow on calcite xls and druses of minute quartz xls at Ohbora, Toi, in vugs in propylite. Also nearby with wairakite as veinlets in propylite around Au-Ag-bearing quartz-adularia veins at the Seikoshi mine. As white rectangular crystals with stellerite, heulandite, mordenite, chabazite, celadonite and calcite at Shoubusawa. Analytically confirmed stilbite-Ca comes from Omuroyama. Stilbite occurs in two habits, both flat-terminated and pointed crystals, in andesite breccia at Komuroyama (same place???). With chabazite at Amagi-tohge (Smithsonian specimen). Also in Oh'hito-cho.
Tochigi: (where???)
Yamanashi: Crystals with irregular terminations at Shimohatsukari.
STILBITE-Na (sohda-taba-fusseki)
Fukuoka: Analytically confirmed stilbite-Na is found in Tsuyazaki-machi where, together with heulandite-Na, it forms the cement in a Tertiary conglomerate.
STILPNOMELANE (suchirupunomerehn; suchirupunomeren)
Ouita: Black round to crudely hexagonal crystals from less than 1cm to almost 2cm diameter, embedded in pale brown "mountain cork" grunerite in skarn at the Obira mine.
Saitama: In glaucophanites in the Nagatoro district and elsewhere in the Kanto mts. A major component of greenstones and schistose pyroclastics associated with chert in Umezono. In augite-bearing chlorite-pumpellyite-stilpnomelane-quartz-albite-hematite schist at Wachiba.
Yamaguchi: In scheelite-bearing skarns in the Akemidani orebody of the Fujigatani mine.
STOKESITE (sutohkusu-seki)
Gifu: In miarolytic cavities in coarse-grained biotite granite at Tawara, especially the Iwaguro-Sekizai quarry, as sparse, isolated, sharp tiny colorless to very pale violet tabular xls embedded in a black chlorite coating on feldspar and quartz crystals. May also be associated with cassiterite or hingganite-(Ce).
STRINGHAMITE (sutoringamu-seki)
Okayama: Bright blue glassy grains in granular grey-white skarn at Fuka.
STROMEYERITE (ki-gin-dohkoh)
Akita: In bornite-rich kuroko-type ore at the Furutobe mine, deposited at very low temperatures. With arsenian renierite (qv) in kuroko ore at the Shakanai mine.
Hyougo: Anhedral masses to 1cm in bornite at the Tada mine.
STRONALSITE (sutoronarushi-seki)
Kouchi: The type locality for this rare strontium-sodium feldspar species is Rendai, where it forms aggregates of white, vitreous, anhedral crystals to 1mm, showing no cleavage and no fluorescence under shortwave or longwave ultraviolet. Intimately associated with slawsonite, pectolite, xonotlite, grossular, hydrogrossular and natrolite, as veinlets cutting a rodingite (metamorphosed basic tuff) xenolith in a serpentinite quarry. (Roughly a tenth of the formula Sr positions are occupied by Ba.)
Niigata: Itoigawa-Ohmi district???
Okayama: As minute white veinlets (most less than 1mm wide) and sparse microscopic grains in pods of white jadeite rock in serpentine at Ohsakabe, the second world locality for stronalsite, associated with analcime, grossular, and prehnite. Some of this stronalsite is close to end-member, and in some the Sr is partially replaced by Ba and minor Ca. The white stronalsite veinlets are very difficult to see in their white matrix and are easily confused with the more abundant analcime and grossular veinlets of very similar appearance. Most specimens from here labelled "stronalsite" in systematic species collections probably do not contain any of it!
STRONTIANITE (sutoronchian-seki)
Kouchi: White spear-shaped microcrystals in vugs in Sakawa-cho. Poor-quality specimens come from the Nirou mine.
Ouita: Poor specimens reported from Beppu.
Tokyo: Reported from the Shiromaru metasedimentary manganese deposit.
STRONTIOCHEVKINITE (sutoronchiochefukin-seki)
Niigata: Reported with tausonite in blue jadeite from Itoigawa.
STRONTIO-ORTHOJOAQUINITE (nunagawa-seki; sutoronchiumu-shahoh-hoakin-seki)
Niigata: The type locality for strontio-orthojoaquinite, a rare Sr-Ba-Na-Ti silicate, is Kanayama-dani in Ohmi, where it occurs in white albite matrix, associated with pale bluish fibrous magnesioriebeckite and quartz, in vugs in riebeckite syenite rock or albitite enclosed in serpentine. Rare associates include benitoite, leucosphenite, and white to beige filiform ohmilite. Strontio-orthojoaquinite usually forms bright yellow to dark yellow or brownish yellow anhedral grains to 3mm, rarely rhombic pyramidal crystals to 3mm in vugs, with good basal cleavage. Very exceptionally, superb terminated steep-pyramidal crystals to 2cm(!) (private collection in Nagoya). Also as granular aggregates to 1cm. Originally described from here by Dr. Masayuki Komatsu in 1974 as "NUNAKAWAITE", named after Queen Nunakawa who lived in this region 1,500 years ago (Mineralogical Journal 7, 395-399, Japan Mineralogical Society), but this name was only used in japanese-language publications and was not submitted to the IMA.
STRONTIOPIEMONTITE (sutoronchiumu-kohren-seki)
Ehime: Ba-Pb-bearing, Mn-rich "strontiopiemontite" from Sanbagawa belt quartz schist in the Saruta-gawa area is actually tweddillite (qv).
Tokyo: At the Shiromaru manganese mine, with tamaite.
STRONTIUM-APATITE (sutoronchiumu-rinkai-seki)
Niigata: Accessory mineral in the blue jadeite of Kotaki-gawa and Oyashirazu in the Ohmi jade district.
STRUNZITE (shutsuruntsu-seki)
Hyougo: As microcrystals in vugs in 2cm vivianite nodules from upper Pliocene clay at Oshibedani, in a Seishin-Chuhou roadcut in Kobe city (now covered by concrete). Similarly nearby at Yoda, where rare, pale yellowish acicular crystals are associated with lipscombite and rockbridgeite.
SUANITE (suuan-seki)
Iwate: In ludwigite-kotoite-bearing marble at a dolomite-granodiorite contact in the Neichi molybdenum mine (Kamineichi) in Miyako city.
SUDOITE (sudoh-seki)
Hyougo: At the Ehara mine, and in Itaya and in Mitsuishi. (The latter 2 really prefecture mistakes for the Okayama localities?)
Kagoshima: With tosudite in the Makurazaki area, in the hydrothermal alteration aureole of Nansatsu-type silicified ores.
Okayama: As light orange "rice grains" in waxy pale tan massive boehmite at the Itaya mine. Nearby, with pyrophyllite and minor pyrite at the Ohhira-Imazaki mine. Very fine-grained, clay-like; both light and dark varieties, at Mitsuishi.
SUGAKIITE (IMA 2005-033) (sugaki-koh)
Hokkaido: A new member of the pentlandite group, tetragonal Cu(Fe,Ni)8S8, from ultrabasic rock at the Horoman Ni-Co-olivine mine.
SUGILITE (sugi-seki)
Ehime: The type locality for this K-Na-Fe-Li member of the osumilite group is Iwagi island. It forms aggregates of light brownish yellow (with a dirty greenish tint called "moss green" in one reference), vitreous, subhedral grains with poor basal cleavage, with albite, aegirine, pectolite and katayamalite in an aegirine syenite. Titanite, allanite, andradite, zircon and apatite are minor associated species. First found in 1944 by Sugi, but not identified and named until much later. (The type locality material contains much less Mn than the better known but quite different appearing violet lapidary sugilite from Africa.) Also found at Furumiya.
SULFUR (shizen-ioh)
(qv also BETA-SULFUR and AMORPHOUS SULFUR)
Akita: Canary-yellow transparent pyramidal crystals in parallel growth, with dominant (111) form and hopper faces, to 2cm long, as fumarolic deposit in volcanic rock at Kiritomedairayama. Also as massive canary-yellow aggregates around a fumarole at the Kumazawa mine. Transparent yellow prismatic crystals with dominant (111) faces, some of skeletal habit, as boxwork impregnations in altered volcanic rock at Kawarage. Also at Hachimandai and Sasshozawa. The Yakeyama deposit is probably an old sulfur lava flow. A rare example of japanese sulfur not originating in a fumarolic or hot spring environment occured at the Kosaka mine, where complex crystals up to 2mm fill fissures in kuroko-type "black ore"; these are smaller, more compact and less fragile than fumarolic sulfur crystals.
Aomori: In fumaroles in the crater of the active volcano Iwakisan, transparent yellow sulfur grows as elongated prismatic crystals with the forms (111), (011), (113), (001) and (101). Twinning on (101) frequently gives them a split "swallowtail" termination. Hopper crystals are also observed. At Dake hot spring , which is also in an active volcano crater, transparent lemon-yellow crystals to 2mm, with well-developed pyramidal faces, occur in fractures in altered volcanic rock. Fumarolic sulfur with good, simple pyramidal crystals to over 4cm, with cavities in the center of the (111) faces, form at Osorezan. Earthy impurities make the crystals opaque greenish. Also in acid lacustrine sediments deposited in the caldera here, with kaolinite, As-rich pyrite, marcasite and hauerite.
Mutsu province (Aomori-ken?): Well-crystallized fumarolic sulfur grows on Yatsukohdo-yama. Crystals are translucent, pale yellow, of simple pyramidal habit, with triangular depressions in the center of the faces.
Gumma: Beautiful crystals, bright yellow, adamantine, to 1.5cm, are found in close proximity to fumaroles on Kusatsu-Shirane-san. Pyramid faces dominate, sometimes with brachydomes. Occasional prismatic habit is created by overdevelopment of 4 alternate pyramid faces. Some hopper faces are partially covered over asymmetrically by later growth, forming an excentric internal cavity. Compound crystals in parallel growth to the c-axis reach 3cm. Further away from the fumaroles, less well-developed crystals occur embedded in earthy sulfur. Sulfur was commercially produced near here at the Shirane mine, where very acid water drains from the mine into the Osozawa river; and the Manza mine. Crusts of light yellow equant crystals at Manza hot spring (same place as Manza mine???).
Hokkaido: The worldÕs most peculiar native sulfur comes from a molten sulfur pool under Ohyu-Numa crater lake by the Hiyoriyama dacite dome in the Noboribetsu hydrothermal system. "Bubbles" of hollow, thin shelled, light yellow sulfur, 1 to 10mm across, float on the waters of a muddy hotspring pool. These very fragile, paper-thin shells formed around gas or superheated steam bubbles in the liquid sulfur at around 40m depth and cooled as they floated to the surface. Most are spherical or drop-shaped, but some elongated shapes appear to be formed by coalescence of three bubbles. Wind and waves concentrate them on the shore of the pond, looking like windrows of broken yellow mini-pingpong balls! Since ancient times, Iou-zan volcano has periodically erupted lava flows composed of molten sulfur 90 to 99% pure. In 1936, between 100,000 and 200,000 tons of sulfur at 130 to 160 degrees C poured out intermittently over the course of 8 months and this was mined in 1937 and 1938 as the Shiretoko mine. Solidified drippings of native sulfur were left hanging from tree branches! This flow also yielded beta-sulfur (qv) crystals. The volcano is now part of Shiretoko national park; fumarolic deposition continues. Sulfur is also presently crystallizing at many other low-temperature volcanic fumaroles in Hokkaido region, such as for example on Kamui-dake on Etorofu island. Hopper crystals to 3cm, and skeletal habits, from the Atosanupuri mine. A chemical-sedimentary bed of sulfur was deposited by oxidation of volcanogenic H2S under hot water at the Horobetsu sulfur mine. Other important localities include Iwaonupuri, Kobui, Meakandake and Tokachidake. (See under "AMORPHOUS SULFUR" for the plastic "rubber-sulphur" from the Kobui mine.)
Iwate: Well-crystallized fumarolic sulfur occurs on Tsurugizan, but crystals are smaller than from other japanese fumarole localities. Some crystals here are paramorphs after beta-sulfur (qv). Massive yellow sulfur aggregates of fumarolic origin, with drusy complex pyramidal crystals to a few mm long lining cavities, were mined here commercially a hundred years ago. Crystals may have an earthy green coating. Also at the Matsuo mine. The Uguisawa and Kurikoma deposits are believed to have been erupted as liquid sulfur flows.
Kagoshima: Light yellow thin scalenohedra to 2cm in fumarolic fissures in the crater of an active volcano on Nakanoshima island in the Tokara chain. Crystals are also currently growing inside pipes and other objects left behind by a defunct sulfur mining operation. Similarly in the crater on Kuchinoerabu-jima and on Yokoate island. On Iou-dake, Satsuma-Ioujima, mostly massive, with small steep pyramidal crystals to a few mm only in fissures on vuggy white altered volcanics. Brownish yellow massive sulfur is allegedly colored by tellurium and selenium; a 19th century analysis of Iou island sulfur gave 0.16% Se, 0.17 Te, 0.01 As, with a trace of Mo (Divers and Shimizu (1883), Chem. Soc. London, 18, 284). Meter-high hollow arborescent sulfur "chimneys" are growing over fumaroles in the crater floor; the branches eventually break off and regrow from the stumps. Elliptical "nuggets" washed down gullies. Sulfur pseudomorphs after tabular feldspar crystals embedded in the keiseki ore. With enargite and other sulfides in silicified volcanic breccias of Nansatsu-type gold ore at the Kasuga mine.
Kanagawa: In fumaroles at Hakone.
Miyagi: Good crystals (resembling those from Kusatsu-Shirane-san in Gumma) are produced by fumaroles at Doroyu. As at most japanese fumarole localities, crystals are dominated by sharp-edged pyramid faces, some of them hoppered. Pyramidal crystals of normal alpha-sulfur occur together with paramorphs after beta-sulfur (qv) on the surface of loose stones around fumaroles at the Narugo sulfur mine. (For the Kurikoma mine, see under neighboring Iwate pref.).
Nagano: Good pyramidal crystals to 2.8cm, occur as groups in fumaroles at Yonago. Unlike other japanese fumarole localities, the sulfur crystals here are more equant and do not exhibit hopper faces. The opaque brownish yellow color is supposedly due to minor Se and Te contents. The Yonago mine here produced sulfur in commercial quantities.
Nagasaki: Crusts of steep pyramidal 1 to 5mm crystals at the Unzen-jigoku solfataras.
Okinawa: Volcanic sulfur was mined on Iwoutori-shima (Tori-jima) in the 14th century, when it was used by the Ryukyu kings to pay tribute to the emperor of China.
Ouita: As melt stalactites to 35cm long, with rippled surface, from Kujuu volcano. Very flattened, with cross-section up to 6cm wide and 1cm thick.
Shizuoka: Pyrite-bearing cherty boulders on the beach at Katase-Shirata have numerous vugs containing rounded crystals or droplets of pale yellow sulfur to 1mm, probably derived from rock altered by the local hot springs. An undersea eruption of sulfur just off the coast here was reported in the 19th century.
Tokyo: Light yellow, vuggy crystalline aggregates on Iou-jima.
Toyama: Hot springs at Tateyama produced orange-pink, massive vesicular sulfur with 0.28% Se (no As). Good pyramidal crystals occur in fumaroles here. Sedimentary deposition of banded sulfur is also associated with Tateyama volcano.
Yamanashi: The old Wakabayashi collection has a most unusual 7cm specimen of colorless transparent quartz from granitic pegmatite at Takemori, containing a 1cm-size inclusion of light yellow native sulfur! More commonly the sulfur occupies small cracks in the quartz crystals.
SUSSEXITE (sasekkusu-seki)
Kouchi: Pink or yellowish, small massive grains at the Matsuo mine.
Tokushima: Small massive grains at the Hakuryu mine, with ardennite, etc.
SUZUKIITE (suzuki-seki)
Gumma: Suzukiite, a rare barium-vanadium silicate (the Ba-analogue of haradaite), forms tiny, bright emerald green, vitreous translucent crystals or flakes to 1mm, and aggregates, with three cleavages (one perfect micaceous), in massive pink meta-sedimentary rhodonite-rhodochrosite at its type locality, the Mogurazawa manganese mine (in stream cobbles below the mine, apparently eroded from the country rock, not from the mine itself). Associated species are rhodonite, rhodochrosite, quartz, barite, alabandite, nagashimalite and barian roscoelite. Strontium substitutes for about 11 atom% of the barium.
Iwate: Thin tabular, bright emerald green crystals to 3mm in rhodonite ore at the Matsumaezawa (No. 3) orebody of the Tanohata mine, with quartz and vanadium-bearing aegirine.
Nagano: Hamayokokawa mine.
SVANBERGITE (subanberugu-seki; suvanberugu-seki)
Shizuoka: Calcian svanbergite occurs at the Kawazu mine as tiny light creamy yellow microcrystalline masses, difficult to distinguish from clay, in vugs in native tellurium-bearing massive quartz.
Yamaguchi: Hinomaru-Nako mine.
SWITZERITE (su'uittsah-seki)
Saitama: In manganese ore at the Hirogawara mine (qv Metaswitzerite).
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