Wurtzite
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox mineral Wurtzite is a zinc and iron sulfide mineral with the chemical formula Template:Chem2, a less frequently encountered structural polymorph form of sphalerite. The iron content is variable up to eight percent.<ref name=Dana>Palache, Charles, Harry Berman & Clifford Frondel (1944), The System of Mineralogy of James Dwight Dana and Edward Salisbury Dana, Yale University 1837-1892, Volume I: Elements, Sulfides, Sulfosalts, Oxides. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York. 7th edition, revised and enlarged, pp. 226-228.</ref> It is trimorphous with matraite and sphalerite.<ref name=Handbook/>
It occurs in hydrothermal deposits associated with sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, barite and marcasite. It also occurs in low-temperature clay-ironstone concretions.<ref name=Handbook/>
It was first described in 1861 for an occurrence in the San José Mine, Oruro City, Cercado Province, Oruro Department, Bolivia, and named for French chemist Charles-Adolphe Wurtz.<ref name=Mindat/> It has widespread distribution. In Europe it is reported from Příbram, Czech Republic; Hesse, Germany; and Liskeard, Cornwall, England. In the US it is reported from Litchfield County, Connecticut; Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana; at Frisco, Beaver County, Utah; and from the Joplin district, Jasper County, Missouri.<ref name=Handbook/>
StructureEdit
The wurtzite group includes cadmoselite (CdSe), greenockite (CdS), mátraite (ZnS), and rambergite (MnS), in addition to wurtzite.<ref>Wurtzite group on Mindat.org</ref>
Its crystal structure is called the wurtzite crystal structure, to which it lends its name. This structure is a member of the hexagonal crystal system and consists of tetrahedrally coordinated zinc and sulfur atoms that are stacked in an ABABABABAB pattern.
The unit cell parameters of wurtzite are (-2H polytype):<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>