Where it forms, where it's found
- Geological setting
It is found in the bituminous fossil woods occurin under the alluvial deposits of Garfagnana, along the Serchio Valley.
- Type locality
- Lignite deposits
- Castelnuovo di Garfagnana
- Garfagnana
- Lucca Province
- Tuscany
- Italy
44.1000°, 10.4000°
2recorded occurrences
Physical
- Hardness
- 1Talc
- 2Gypsum
- 3Calcite
- 4Fluorite
- 5Apatite
- 6Orthoclase
- 7Quartz
- 8Topaz
- 9Corundum
- 10Diamond
- Lustre
- Waxy
- Transparency
- Transparent
- Tenacity
- very brittle
- Density
- 1.01 g/cm³
Crystallography
- Space group
- #44
- Cell parameters
- a = 12.356(4) Å · b = 12.762(4) Å · c = 11.427(3) Å
- Ratio a:b:c
- 1 : 1.033 : 0.925
- Z
- 1
- Morphology
Massive
- Type-locality form
It has an "icy" appearance; it is transparent and very brittle.
Crystal structure
Chemical composition
Synonyms
- Diniet
In other languages
- German
- Dinit
- Italian
- Dinite
Classification
Strunz
10th ed.10.BA.15
- 10Organic CompoundsClass
- 10.BHydrocarbonsDivision
- 10.BAHydrocarbonsGroup
- 10.BA.15DiniteSpecies
Dana
8th ed.50.03.05.01
- 50Organic CompoundsClass
- 50.03HydrocarbonsType
- 50.03.05— unnamed intermediate level —Group
- 50.03.05.01DiniteSpecies
Literature, links & citation
Citations
- 1852Petri, G.: (1852): Sulla dinite, nuovo minerale di origine organica. Gazz. Med. Ital., Toscana, ser. II: 4: 233-234.
- 1991Franzini, Livia, Pasero, Marco, Perchiazzi, Natale (1991) Re-discovery and re-definition of dinite, C20H36, a forgotten organic mineral from Garfagnana, northern Tuscany, Italy. European Journal of Mineralogy, 3 (5) 855-862 doi:10.1127/ejm/3/5/0855DOI: 10.1127/ejm/3/5/0855
- 2005(2005) Dinite. Handbook of Mineralogy. Mineralogical Society of America
- 2017Kinghorn, A.D., Falk, H., Gibbons, S., Kobayashi, J., (2017): Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products. ISSN 2191-7043 (electronic ISSN 2192-4309), Springer International Publishing AG, Cham, Switzerland, 245 pp.
Cite this entry
@misc{mineral2026,
author = {Mineral Index editorial board},
title = {Dinite — Mineral Index},
year = {2026},
url = {https://mineralindex.org/minerals/dinite-6904},
note = {Accessed 2026-05-11}
}