Asbestos
Dutch: Asbest.
Name: from the Russian town in Sverdlovsk Oblast.
Clades: Silicates.
Chemical: Mg3(Si2O5)(OH)4.
Crystal system: Orthorhombic, monoclinic
Mineralogy
Asbestos is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic fibrils that can be released into the atmosphere by abrasion and other processes.
Inhalation of asbestos fibres can lead to various dangerous lung conditions, including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer, so it is now notorious as a serious health and safety hazard.
Forms
Amosite, brown asbestos, an amphibole.
Rocidolite, blue asbestos, an amphibole.
Tremolite asbestos.
Chrysotile deposits.
Chrysotile, White asbestos, ± 95% of the asbestos, soft, fibrous, silicate in the Kaoline serpentine subgroup of phyllosilicates.