fayalitenoun · 1840
Well attestedThe mineral is named for an Azorean island where it probably never occurred naturally.
The name was published in 1840 for Faial in the Azores, on the belief that the material came from a local volcanic rock. The Handbook of Mineralogy records that the original material was almost certainly furnace slag carried ashore as ship's ballast. The name stuck anyway, and fayalite is now a standard term for iron olivine in rhyolites, obsidians and quartz syenites worldwide.
Named from the placeRead →