earth science

Hibbingite

Hibbingite is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Hibbingite rather than just read about it. In short: Hibbingite is a divalent iron hydroxychloride found in the Duluth Complex of northeastern Minnesota, United States. Hibbingite can be found in troctolitic, partially serpentinized rocks.

Key takeaways

Hibbingite belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Hibbingite to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Hibbingite from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Hibbingite is a divalent iron hydroxychloride found in the Duluth Complex of northeastern Minnesota, United States. Hibbingite can be found in troctolitic, partially serpentinized rocks. Hibbingite can also be found in sulfide ore from the Sudbury Complex, Canada, the Noril’sk Intrusion in Russia, and in terrestrially weathered meteorites. Hibbingite is mostly found as vein filings from drill cores taken from troctolitic, partially serpentinized rocks. Hibbingite itself can have cleavage perpendicular to the vein walls in which it is found. Hibbingite is associated with serpentine, olivine, plagioclase, biotite, and secondary magnetite or goethite. Fresh samples are internally green but turn reddish as they oxidize. Hibbingite is part of the atacamite family of minerals.

Naming Hibbingite is named after the town of Hibbing, Minnesota. Hibbingite is preserved at the drill core library of the Department of Natural Resources in Hibbing Minnesota.

Occurrence Hibbingite occurs in the Duluth Complex of northeastern Minnesota. Specifically, it occurs in drill cores of serpentinized, troctolitic, or peridotitic rocks. Veins of hibbingite may crosscut olivine or plagioclase grains. Hibbingite can also occur along cleavage planes of biotite. It has also been identified from Norilsk, Siberia, Russia and together with a polymorph, parahibbingite, in Slovakia

Physical and optical properties Grain sizes of hibbingite range from 20 to 700 μm long and 3-100 μm wide. Hibbingite can be lens shaped, often in biotite. Hydration bubbles can form on the surface of the mineral after being exposed to atmospheric moisture. Hibbingite may exhibit feathery intergrowths of serpentine minerals. Hibbingite is colorless to pale green in its unoxidized form. The internal reflections of hibbingite are green but turn red as it oxidizes. Hibbingite is often lens shaped.

Chemical Properties Hibbingite is a divalent hydroxychloride. The simplified formula of hibbingite is Fe2Cl(OH)3. Hibbingite has the ability to oxidize. The internal reflections turn from green to red as it oxidizes. Hibbingite probably formed in the Duluth complex as a result of Cl rich fluids participating in serpentinization reactions. Hibbingite is a naturally occurring iron hydroxychloride. The iron in hibbingite is divalent. This was determined by measuring the FeLβ/Lα ratio of X-ray emission from hibbingite grains, and by visible-light absorption spectroscopy.

Chemical composition

X-ray crystallography X-ray diffraction analysis was originally carried out twice in an attempt to get the X-ray diffraction pattern of hibbingite. Neither attempt yielded unambiguous data. Hibbingite has an inferred space group of Pnam and a calculated density of 3.04 g/cm³. In 2019, a research group led by Natalia V. Zubkova solved the structure of hibbingite from X-ray diffraction. Their value was refined to R=2.07%.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Hibbingite

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Hibbingite claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Hibbingite before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Hibbingite ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Hibbingite

In research: Hibbingite appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Hibbingite in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Hibbingite is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Hydroxide minerals, Orthorhombic minerals, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Hibbingite outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Hibbingite in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Hibbingite means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Hibbingite out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Hibbingite in simple terms?

Hibbingite is a divalent iron hydroxychloride found in the Duluth Complex of northeastern Minnesota, United States. Hibbingite can be found in troctolitic, partially serpentinized rocks.

Why does Hibbingite matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Hibbingite?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Hibbingite.