Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay
Goethite, (FeO(OH)) and diaspore (AlO(OH)) are among the many hydroxides of iron and aluminum. Usually these minerals are so intermingled that we apply collective names to the mixtures: limonite for iron and bauxite for aluminum. In both cases, the oxygen-hydroxyl sheets form a hexagonal close-packed array. The iron and aluminum fill two thirds of the octahedral interstices, but in strips.
![]() | An oblique view. In a polyhedral representation, strips of octahedra enclose "tunnels." |
![]() | Top view. Note that the octahedra at the two different levels face opposite directions. |
In the ball model below, we see that alternating strips of cations (red andyellow) join the close-packed oxygen sheets (in shades of blue). There are no"tunnels" - there appear to be in the polyhedral representation only because vacant octahedra are not shown.
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Created 6 March, 2002, Last Update