Nahcolite
Mineral NaHCO3
Take care.
- Damaged by water: Keep it dry: don't wash it, and keep it out of damp places.
About it
The natural form of baking soda: colourless to white crystals and nodules that dissolve in water. Large beds lie in the oil shales of Colorado's Piceance Basin; also found at Searles Lake, California.
- Type
- Mineral
- Group
- Carbonate
- Formula
- NaHCO3
- Hardness (Mohs)
- 2.5
- Specific gravity
- 2.16–2.21
- Streak
- white
- Lustre
- vitreous (glassy), resinous
- Crystal system
- Monoclinic
- Colours
- colourless, white, grey, brown
- Transparency
- transparent, translucent
- Cleavage and fracture
- perfect in one direction
Typical values: real specimens vary. For more, see mindat.org.