sarcolite

Sarcolite is a mineral named due to its color. Its name originates from the Greek word (σάρξ), meaning flesh and from the Greek word for stone, (λίθος), for being a mineral. It was first described in 1959, but had been a valid species since 1807. It is grandfathered, meaning the name sarcolite still refers to a valid species till this day. Researchers were able to create lab-grown sarcolites with the same crystal structure and formula, although the lab grown ones show different, uniaxial (-) optical properties.

== Properties == Sarcolite grows equant pseudocubic fine hemihedral crystals up to 2.5 cm in irregular masses that are well-formed. It mainly consists of oxygen (40.72%), calcium (25.50%) and silicon (17.87%), but otherwise contains aluminum (11.45%), sodium (2.44%) and fluorine (2.01%). It does not show radioactive properties whatsoever. It is soluble in hydrogen fluoride and in hydrogen chloride. It used to be considered to be a flesh-colored analcime variety due to the distinct pseudocubic habit it has. In 1824 however, thanks to Brooke it turned out that the mineral is tetragonal and dipyramidal. After morphological and crystallographic studies, it became clear that sarcolite is a different species. The classification was a struggle as well. It was considered a feldspathoid at first, then it got placed to the melilite group. In the end, it was placed in the scapolite group due to the chemical resemblance of the marialite-meionite series.