Beckettite
A calcium vanadium aluminium oxide from a vanadium-rich inclusion in Allende.
Key facts
- Formula
- Ca2V6Al6O20
- Family
- Oxides
- Crystal system
- Triclinic
- First described
- the Allende CV3 chondrite, 2015
Beckettite was approved as a new mineral in 2015 from a vanadium-rich calcium-aluminium-rich inclusion in Allende, and described in 2021. It is named after John Beckett, an American petrologist who studies refractory inclusions.
What it is
Beckettite belongs to a family of oxides with the structure of rhönite and sapphirine, in which chains and sheets of linked metal–oxygen groups form a dense framework. In beckettite, vanadium dominates one set of sites. It appears to have formed when the inclusion was altered, after it first crystallised.
Where it is found
It occurs in the same vanadium-rich type A inclusion in Allende as burnettite and paqueite.
How it is recognised
It is found with the scanning electron microscope and identified by its composition and by electron backscatter diffraction.
Did you know?
Beckettite, warkite and addibischoffite share the same structure with different metals.
Vanadium-rich inclusions like this one are among the rarest in Allende.