Deynekoite, Ca9□Fe3+(PO4)7 - a new mineral of the merrillite group from phosphide-bearing contact facies of paralava, Hatrurim Complex, Daba-Siwaqa, Jordan

Deynekoite, Ca-9 square Fe3+(PO4)(7) (R3c, a = 10.3516(3)angstrom, c = 37.1599(17)angstrom, V = 3448.4(3)angstrom(3) and Z = 6), a new mineral of the merrillite group was found in the contact facies of paralava of the Hatrurim Complex in the Daba-Siwaqa pyrometamorphic rock field, Jordan. The paralava, consisting of diopside, tridymite, anorthite, wollastonite and fluorapatite, is enriched in Fe-bearing phosphides and phosphates at the contact with the altered country rock. Cristobalite overgrowing tridymite has a fish-scales texture indicating that temperature of paralava could have reached 1500 degrees C. Deynekoite with empirical formula (Ca8.90Na0.11K0.02)(Sigma 9.03)(Fe0.623+Mg0.30Al0.05)(Sigma 0.97)P6.98V0.055+O27.70(OH)(0.30) forms transparent, light-yellow or light-brown grains up to 30-40 mu m in size. Microhardness of deynekoite, VHN25 = 319(29) kg/mm(2), corresponds to Mohs hardness = 4.5. Its density was calculated as 3.09 g center dot cm(-3) on the basis of its empirical composition and structural data. Deynekoite is uniaxial (-), its refractive indices are omega = 1.658(3), epsilon = 1.652(3) (lambda = 589 nm), and pleochroism is not observed. The formation of phosphides on the boundary of the paralava and country rock is connected with carbothermal reductive reactions and realised at temperatures above 1300 degrees C. With decreasing temperature and increasing oxygen activity, phosphides are replaced by Fe2+-bearing phosphates. Deynekoite, which contains Fe3+ (substituting for Fe2+-phosphates) and a small amount of water, formed at temperatures of 600-800 degrees C.