SHORTITE

    Class : Carbonates, nitrates, borates
    Subclass : Anhydrous carbonates
    Crystal system : Orthorhombic
    Chemistry : Na2Ca2(CO3)3
    Rarity : Very rare

Shortite is a very rare sodium and calcium carbonate found mainly in sulfide clays. It is exceptionally known in carbonatites of alkaline massifs and in a kimberlite. It was named in honor of the American Professor of Mineralogy Maxwell Naylor Short of the University of Arizona. Shortite forms striated crystals with sharp edges of 15 mm at most and of varied habits : tabular, equant or short prismatic. It is colorless or very pale yellow.

Main photo : Shortite from Green River Trona Mine, Wyoming, USA © Philip Bluemner

Shortite in the World

Shortite is a very rare mineral that is known in good crystals only in centimetric lenses of montmorillonite interbedded in trona beds, within the sedimentary Green River Formation (Wyoming and Utah). Crystals associated with pyrite and calcite have been encountered only in drilling. Shortite is also reported in alkaline rock massifs : at Mont St-Hilaire (Quebec), as tiny inclusions in apatite crystals of the Tororo carbonatite (Uganda), in a Canadian kimberlite, in the Kola Peninsula (Russia) and in a few other localities.

Right photo : Shortite from Poudrette Quarry, Mont St-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada © Rob Lavinsky


Shortite in France

Shortite is not present in the French underground.

Twinning

No known twinning for this mineral species.

Fakes and treatments

No fakes listed for this mineral species.


Hardness : 3
Density : 2.6
Fracture : Conchoidal
Streak : White

TP : Transparent
RI : 1.531 to 1.570
Birefringence : 0.039
Optical character : Biaxial -
Pleochroism : None
Fluorescence : Pale yellow

Solubility : Water

Magnetism : NoneRadioactivity : None