ABSTRACT. Recent investigations on a phosphatized sediment sequence in the Cioclovina Cave led to the identification of a second occurrence in Romania (first time in the cave environment) of variscite, AlPO 4 ·2H 2 O. The mineral exists as dullwhite, tiny crusts and veinlets within the thick argillaceous material accumulated on the cave floor. Under scanning electron microscope (SEM) variscite appears as subhedral to euhedral micron-size crystals. The {111} pseudo-octahedral form is rather common. Variscite was further characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, thermal, vibrational FT-IR and FT-Raman spectroscopy, and by SEM energydispersive spectrometry (EDS). The calculated orthorhombic cell parameters are a = 9.823(4), b = 8.562(9), c = 9.620(5) Å, and V = 809.167(6) Å 3 . The ED spectrum of variscite shows well-resolved Al and P lines confirming thus the presence of the major elements in our compound. The formation of variscite is attributed to the reaction between the phosphate-rich leachates derived from guano and the underlying clay sediments.Keywords: phosphate minerals, variscite, Cioclovina Cave, Romania.
GENERAL DATAThe Cioclovina Cave is located 40 km southeast of the city of Hunedoara, in the west-southwest side of Şureanu Mountains, Romania (Fig. 1, inset), at an altitude of 770 m asl. The investigated part of the cave develops in reef limestone of Lower Cretaceous age (Stilla, 1981;Pop et al., 1985). The total length of the cave is 1400 m (Breban et al., 2003), but only the first 450 m (Fig. 1) are of great interest with respect to the occurrence of authigenic phosphate minerals.Mining operations undertaken in this cave during the first half of the 20 th century have exposed impressive outcrops of interstratified alluvial sediments (clay, sand, and gravels) that were subsequently phosphatized through the action of P-rich solutions provided by the breakdown of guano and bones. Depending on whether the percolating water passing through guano reacts with carbonate rocks or clay minerals, Ca-, Mg-, and Al-rich, or K-Fe phosphates have been deposited. Over the last five years, several descriptive and/or detailed mineralogical investigations were undertaken, each of them pointing out a remarkable rich and divers assemblage of authigenic phosphate minerals. So far, 15 phosphate minerals were described by Schadler