Yellow crystals of the rare vanadium oxide mineral Shcherbinaite from the type locality in Kamtchatka (Bezymyannyi Volcano, Kamchatka Krai, Russian Federation). Ex.Dr.Hartel specimen. — Photo: David Hospital · CC BY-SA 4.0
Shcherbinaite
Shcherbinaite is an IMA-recognized mineral species in the vanadate class, with the chemical formula V₂O₅.
It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system (space group Pmn2_1).
Key properties: specific gravity 3.38; Vitreous luster; optically biaxial.
IMA symbol Shc, IMA status: approved, named in 1971.
Deposited from fumarolic gasses, rich in halogens, at 500–550 ° C, on the walls of volcanic fissures (Bezymianny volcano, Russia); in vanadium-bearing sublimates in fumaroles on a basaltic volcanic cone (Izalco volcano, El Salvador).
It is found associated with Bannermanite, stoiberite, ziesite, fingerite, chalcocyanite, chalcanthite (Izalco volcano, El Salvador).
The mineral was named to honor Vladimira Vital’evich Shcherbina (1907–1978), Russian geochemist of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences, Moscow.