Database of luminescent minerals 

Tinguaite

Chemical formula:

Family: Rock

Status: NON APPR

Display mineral: NON

Luminescence:

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Phosphorescence (in the common sense of the term) observable with the naked eye:

No data

Comments:

Tinguaite got its unusual name in honor of the province Sierra de Tingua which is located in South America.This is where the stone was first discovered.

Tinguaite or intrusive phonolite is a pale- to dark-green, very fine-grained igneous rock, variety of phonolite consisting of alkali feldspar, nepheline with or without other foids, aegirine and sometimes biotite. It is characterized by tinguaitic texture in which needles of aegirine occur interstitially in a mosaic of alkali feldspar and foids.

Tinguaites are alkali rocks. They form dykes that always belong to a nepheline syenite and are bound to volcanic areas within continental plates. Alkali rocks are rare. They contain so much potassium and especially sodium that they cannot be completely bound in the feldspars. As a result of this excess, foids also form. In this case it is mainly nepheline, which is usually found in the ground mass and can only be seen with the naked eye in exceptional cases. Aegirine is crucial for recognising a tinguaite: the black to dark green needles must be abundant. There is never quartz in a tinguaite.

Sometimes called "shamanic grass", a type of Tinguaite from Russia.

Activator(s) and spectrum:

No spectrum yet

Best localities for fluorescence (*):

• Khibiny mountains, Kola peninsula, Russia;

(*)The data are not exhaustive and are limited to a few remarkable localities for fluorescence

Bibliographic reference for luminescence:

Reference for luminescence on the Internet:

Mineralogical reference on the Internet:

  http://www.mindat.org/show.php?name=Tinguaite

  http://webmineral.com/data/Tinguaite.shtml

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