Hanksite
Mineral KNa22(SO4)9(CO3)2Cl
Take care.
- Damaged by water: Keep it dry: don't wash it, and keep it out of damp places.
- Breaks down in damp air: Keep it dry and in steady humidity; some crumble or rot as they take on moisture.
About it
Six-sided prisms and tablets, often clouded with mud, almost all from Searles Lake in California. Holds sulfate, carbonate, and chloride in one mineral, and dissolves in water.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfate, sulfate-carbonate-chloride
- Formula
- KNa22(SO4)9(CO3)2Cl
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 3–3.5
- Specific gravity
- 2.5–2.57
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), dull
- Crystal system
- Hexagonal
- Colours
- colourless, white, yellow, grey, greenish
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- good basal; uneven fracture
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.