Botryogen

Botryogen is a hydrous magnesium sulfate mineral with formula: MgFe³⁺(SO₄)₂(OH)·7H₂O. It is also known as quetenite.

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It crystallizes in the monoclinic prismatic system and typically occurs as vitreous bright yellow to red botryoidal to reniform masses and radiating crystal prisms. Its specific gravity is 2 to 2.1 and its Mohs hardness is 2.

It occurs in arid climates as a secondary alteration product of pyrite bearing deposites.

It was first described in 1828 for an occurrence in the Falu mine of Falun, Dalarna, Sweden. It was named for its grape like appearance from Greek botrys for bunch of grapes and genos to bear.

References

• Palache, C., H. Berman, and C. Frondel (1951) Dana’s system of mineralogy, (7th edition), v. II, pp. 617–618.
• Mineral Data Publishing (PDF)
• Mindat with locality data
• Webmineral data