Fumarole minerals (or fumarolic minerals) are which are deposited by fumarole exhalations. They form when gases and compounds desublimate or precipitate out of condensates, forming mineral deposits. They are mostly associated with (as volcanic sublimate or fumarolic sublimate) following deposition from volcanic gas during an eruption or discharge from a volcanic vent or fumarole, but have been encountered on Coal-seam fire as well. They can be black or multicoloured and are often unstable upon exposure to the atmosphere.
Native sulfur, in this context called brimstone, is a common sublimate mineral and various Halide mineral, Sulfide mineral and Sulfate mineral occur in this environment associated with fumaroles and eruptions. A number of rare minerals are fumarole minerals, and at least 240 such minerals are known from Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, Russia. Other volcanoes where particular fumarole minerals have been discovered are Vulcano in Italy and Bezymyanny also in Russia.
Volcanic fumarole minerals (as volcanic sublimate or fumarolic sublimate) form following deposition from volcanic gas during an eruption or discharge from a volcanic vent or fumarole. Burning coal produces enough heat to partially melt rocks and to generate exhalations of the mineral components embedded in coal. Coal seam fires often deposit fumarolic minerals over areas of a few square metres which can be detected by airborne hyperspectral imagery. Coal fires can mobilize toxic . Fumarole minerals have also been found in Gusev crater on Mars and possibly in a sample returned from the Moon by the probe Chang'e-5.
Fumarole deposits have been used to identify heat flow anomalies and to reconstruct ore genesis processes.
Fumarole exhalations are often black or multicoloured, and tend to develop typical zonations. Common components are sulfur compounds and elemental sulfur. In the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Alaska the fumarole minerals form both thin crusts in the vents, mixtures with tephra deposits and coloured outcrops and mounds at the sites of former fumaroles. Deposits at Tolbachik volcano have shapes likef crusts, small plates and globules.
Typical components of fumarole minerals are , , and , with the exact composition different between volcanoes, individual vents at volcanoes and different temperatures of the same vent. Fumarolic minerals are often unstable and are eroded or decompose, in the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes in Alaska it took less than a century for almost all fumarole mineral deposits to disappear although others remained and were later used to identify former fumarole vents. Thus, many fumarole minerals are rare and many rare minerals are fumarole minerals. Some fumarolic minerals have been found in extinct Cenozoic volcanoes and could exist in Archean rocks as well, however. Unique textures occur such as bubble-like structures, which may form when the liquid that deposits the minerals evaporates.
The most fumarolic minerals have been found at Tolbachik volcano in Kamchatka, Russia; Tolbachik also has one of the most diverse mineral assemblages in the world, with a number of "endemic" minerals. The high temperature and oxidizing regime of exhalations which transport the elements at Tolbachik facilitates mineral deposition. A large assemblage of and a number of copper-zinc selenite and copper-based fumarolic minerals were discovered at Tolbachik volcano, Kamchatka, Russia. Many of these include polymeric units. About 240 minerals have been identified at Tolbachik, close to a record, 40 of them only incompletely studied. Elemental gold linked to chlorides at Tolbachik has been interpreted as gold transported by chlorine-rich oxidizing environments. Specimens of fumarole minerals from Tolbachik and Kudryavy are hosted by the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow.
Historical of Vesuvius volcano contain fumarolic minerals. Various fumarole minerals have been discovered at Vulcano volcano in Italy, where the mineralogy has changed since 1987 and 1990 due to hotter fumarole exhalations, yielding increased sulfate and sulfur salt concentrations. Fumarolic minerals have also been encountered in multiple in Siberia.
+ !Mineral !Formula !Location !Date described !Ref | ||||
Abramovite | Kudryavy, Russia | 2008 | ||
Allochalcoselite | ||||
Aluminocoquimbite | Grotta del' Alume, Vulcano, Italy | 2010 | ||
Aluminopyracmonite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2018 | ||
Arsmirandite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2020 | ||
Axelite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2022 | ||
Baliczunicite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2013 | ||
Belomarinaite | Toludskoe lava field, Tolbachik, Russia | 2019 | ||
Belousovite | Yadovitaya fumarole, Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2018 | ||
Blossite | α | Izalco, El Salvador | 1987 | |
Bubnovaite | Naboko cone, Tolbachik, Russia | |||
Burnsite | Tolbachik | 2002? | ||
Cadmoindite | Kudryavy, Russia | 2004 | ||
Calciolangbeinite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2022 | ||
Campostriniite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2015 | ||
Cannizzarite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | |||
Cesiodymite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2018 | ||
Chubarovite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2015 | ||
Cryptochalcite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2018 | ||
Cuprodobrovolskyite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik | 2023 | ||
Cupromolybdite | New Tolbachik scoria cones, Tolbachik, Russia | 2012 | ||
D'ansite | Vesuvius and Vulcano, Italy | 2012 | ||
Demartinite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2007 | ||
Demicheleite | and | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2010 and 2008 | |
Dobrovolskyite | Great Tolbachik fissure eruption, Kamchatka peninsula, Russia | 2021 | ||
Elasmochloite | ||||
Eldfellite | ||||
Ermakovite | Fan-Yagnob coal deposit, Tajikistan | 2022 | ||
Grigorievite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2015 | ||
Hermannjahnite | Naboko scoria cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2018 | ||
Karpovite | First Cinder Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2018 | ||
Knasibfite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2008 | ||
Koksharovite | Bezymyanny, Russia | 2015 | ||
Kristjánite | Fimmvörðuháls, Iceland | 2010 | ||
Kudriavite | Kudryavy, Russia | 2004 | ||
Lehmannite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik | 2020 | ||
Leonardsenite | Eldfell, Heimaey, Iceland | 2015 | ||
Lesyukite | First Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2007 or earlier | ||
Lucabindiite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2010–2011 | ||
Majzlanite | Yadovitaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2019 | ||
Manuelarossiite | Vesuvius volcano, Italy | 2024? | ||
Medvedevite | Toludskoe lava field, Tolbachik, Russia | 2020 | ||
Napoliite | Vesuvius, 1994 rocks | 2010-2020 | ||
Nishanbaevite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2022 | ||
Oskarssonite | Eldfell, Iceland | 2018 | ||
Ozerovaite | Second Cinder Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2019 | ||
Paradimorphite | Solfatara, Campi Flegrei, Italy | 2022 | ||
Parageorgbokiite | Yadovitaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2007 | ||
Parascandolaite | Vesuvius, Italy | 2014 | ||
Parawulffite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2014 | ||
Petrovite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2020 | ||
Pliniusite | Tolbachik, Russia | 2022 | ||
Prewittite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2013 | ||
Pseudolyonsite | New Tolbachik scoria cones, Tolbachik, Russia | 2011 | ||
Puninite | Second scoria cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 2017 | ||
Rhabdoborite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2020 | ||
Russoite | Solfatara, Phlegrean Fields, Italy | 2018 | ||
Ryabchikovite | Arsenatnaya, Tolbachik | 2023 | ||
Sbacchiite | Vesuvius, Italy | 2019 | ||
Shcherbinaite | Izalco, El Salvador | 1983 | ||
Stoiberite | "Y fumarole", Izalco, El Salvador | 1979 | ||
Therasiaite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2014 | ||
Thermessaite | La Fossa, Vulcano, Italy | 2021 | ||
Topsøeite | Hekla, Iceland | 2018 | ||
Wulffite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2014 | ||
Vasilseverginite | Arsenatnaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2021 | ||
Wrightite | Second Scoria Cone, Tolbachik, Russia | 1983 | ||
Yavapaiite | ||||
Ziminaite | Bezymyanny, Russia | 2018 | ||
Zincobradaczekite | Yadovitaya fumarole, Tolbachik, Russia | 2020 |
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