Arsenolite
Mineral As2O3
Also called White arsenic
Take care.
- Contains arsenic: Wash your hands after handling it, don't make dust, and never heat it.
- Damaged by water: Keep it dry: don't wash it, and keep it out of damp places.
About it
White octahedrons and powdery crusts where arsenic ores oxidize or burn; highly poisonous and slightly soluble, so never taste or wash it. Known from Jáchymov, Czechia, and from mine fires.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Oxide
- Formula
- As2O3
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 1.5
- Specific gravity
- 3.86–3.88
- Streak
- white to pale yellow
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), silky
- Crystal system
- Isometric (cubic)
- Colours
- colourless, white, pale blue, yellowish
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- good octahedral; conchoidal fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.