cheralite

English

Relationship of monazites, cheralites, and huttonites

Noun

cheralite (countable and uncountable, plural cheralites)

1. (mineralogy) Any of a range of yellowish-brown to green minerals that are mixed phosphates of (primarily) calcium and thorium, associated with uraniferous deposits.
   • 1960, Proceedings of the National Institute of Sciences of India:

     The rotation pattern in the small interplanar region was somewhat diffuse in the cheralites and Travancore monazites, but not in the Yediyoor specimens, indicating the existence of partial disorder in the former.

   • 1995, Michael Brown, Philip M. Piccoli, The Origin of Granites and Related Rocks:

     Even at the thin-section scale, the cheralite mole fraction may vary over a range of more than 50%, expressing that only part of the monazites is actually in equilibrium with the host-granite REE composition.

   • 2013, Reiner Ditz, Wolfgang Töpper, Bärbel Sarbas, Th Thorium: Natural Occurrence. Minerals (Excluding Silicates), →ISBN:

     Small-sized cheralite is disseminated in cavities of lateritic soil particles (e.g., of sericitized orthoclase) of the Morro do Ferro deposit, Minas Gerais, southeaster Brazil.

Anagrams

• etherical, heretical