When colour makes minerals unique: the case of the green dolomite from Malentrata (Pomarance, Tuscany, Italy)

Adami, Luca; Ardit, Matteo; Bonadiman, Costanza; Dondi, Michele; Mancinelli, Maura; Lepore, Giovanni Orazio; Spagnoli, Elena; Nodari, Luca; Tassinari, Renzo; Zoleo, Alfonso; Montegrossi, Giordano; Di Benedetto, Francesco

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-37-517-2025

Articles | Volume 37, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-37-517-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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https://doi.org/10.5194/ejm-37-517-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 37, issue 4

Research article

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28 Jul 2025

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 28 Jul 2025

When colour makes minerals unique: the case of the green dolomite from Malentrata (Pomarance, Tuscany, Italy)

Luca Adami, Matteo Ardit, Costanza Bonadiman, Michele Dondi, Maura Mancinelli, Giovanni Orazio Lepore, Elena Spagnoli, Luca Nodari, Renzo Tassinari, Alfonso Zoleo, Giordano Montegrossi, and Francesco Di Benedetto

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Latest update: 28 Jul 2025

Short summary

A thorough multimethod characterisation of the green dolomite sampled at the Malentrata magnesite mine has been carried out. We observed (1) a peculiar reduction of the cell volume and (2) the origin of the peculiar green colour, mainly determined by the Fe electronic transitions, probably in combination with those of Cr. In fact, the green dolomite of Malentrata contains aliquots of a number of environmentally relevant elements, in particular Mn, Cr, and Ni.