Kainite
Mineral KMg(SO4)Cl·3H2O
Take care.
- Damaged by water: Keep it dry: don't wash it, and keep it out of damp places.
About it
A water-soluble potash mineral of evaporite beds, usually granular rather than crystalline. Once a leading fertilizer from Stassfurt in Germany; also found in Sicily and at Carlsbad, New Mexico.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Sulfate, sulfate-chloride
- Formula
- KMg(SO4)Cl·3H2O
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2.5–3
- Specific gravity
- 2.13–2.15
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy)
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Colours
- colourless, white, grey, yellowish, reddish, bluish
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect in one direction
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.