The main serpentine group minerals are antigorite, chrysotile, and lizardite.
You should probably also know that chrysotile is both asbestiform and a form of asbestos. Touching it won’t hurt you, but snorting, licking, or otherwise ingesting it is maybe not so smart.
Physical Properties |
|
| Chemical formula | Mg6Si4O10(OH)8 |
| Class | Phyllosilicate Sheets of linked tetrahedra |
| Crystal system | Monoclinic |
| Habit | Fine-grained Massive Platy Fibrous/asbestiform (chrysotile only) |
| Color | Green Yellow-green Greenish white Variable white White |
| Hardness | 3 to 5 |
| Specific gravity | 2.5 to 2.6 |
| Cleavage | Perfect (001) (antigorite) None (chrysotile) |
| Fracture | Flexible (antigorite) Uneven (chrysotile) |
| Luster | Resinous (antigorite) Silky (antigorite) Greasy (chrysotile) Waxy (chrysotile) |
| Transparency | Translucent |
| Streak | White |
Optical Properties |
|
| PPL | Colorless Low relief Non-pleochroic |
| XPL | Wavy extinction Anomalous interference colors: blues, grays, greens, yellows |
| Ī“ | 0.007 |
| after Perkins, 317-318 |
Serpentine in Hand Sample
Two undetermined serpentine subgroup minerals
Chrysotile
Antigorite and chrysotile side by side
Serpentine in serpentinite from the Josephine ophiolite
Serpentine in kimberlite from Barkly West, South Africa
Serpentine in Thin Section
Serpentine in plane polars
Serpentine in crossed polars
Serpentine marble, plane polars
Serpentine marble, crossed polars
Serpentine in kimberlite from Barkly West, South Africa in plane polarsĀ
Serpentine in kimberlite from Barkly West, South Africa in crossed polars
Serpentinite, plane polars
Serpentinite in plane polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for crossed polars: https://youtu.be/vb2hMf7BJMA Click here to explore this slide in PPL…
Serpentinite, crossed polars
Serpentinite in cross polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for plane polars: https://youtu.be/kvq82lZrPI4 Click here to explore this slide in PPL: …
Serpentine marble, plane polars
Serpentine marble in plane polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for crossed polars: https://youtu.be/8u4wokYrVYs Click here to explore this slide i…
Serpentine marble, crossed polars
Serpentine marble in cross polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for plane polars: https://youtu.be/Cd3knZRN0uw Click here to explore this slide in …
Serpentine in kimberlite, plane polars
Serpentine in kimberlite from Barkly West, South Africa in plane polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for crossed polars: Click here to explore thi…
Serpentine in kimberlite, crossed polars
Serpentine in kimberlite from Barkly West, South Africa in cross polarized light. Magnification: 40x Click here for plane polars: https://youtu.be/hZbOCfTIO3…
Further Reading
Antigorite at webmineral.com
Chrysotile at webmineral.com
Serpentine subgroup at mindat.org