Seifertite

SiO2
IMA status
  • Approved
IMA symbol
Sft
IMA approved
2004
Also known as
  • IMA2004-010
  • Seifertiet
  • UM1999-//-SiO
  • +2 more

Where it forms, where it's found

Geological setting

Presumably formed by impact shock in basaltic Mars rock.

Meteorites derived from Martian basalt.

Type locality
Shergotty Martian meteorite
  1. Gaya District
  2. Bihar
  3. India

24.5500°, 84.8333°

3recorded occurrences
Source · OpenStreetMap

Physical

Density
4.294 g/cm³

Crystallography

Crystal system
Orthorhombic
Space group
#63
Cell parameters
a = 4.097(1) Å · b = 5.0462(8) Å · c = 4.4946(8) Å
Ratio a:b:c
1 : 1.232 : 1.097
Unit cell volume
92.92 ų
Z
4
Type-locality form

lamellae occurring in composit silica grains

Comment

parameters for the synthesized material (Zhang et al., 2016): a=3.7277, b=4.6576, c=4.1609, V=72.243

Crystal structure

Chemical composition

Constituent elements
Mass composition breakdown
ElementAtoms At. mass g/mol Mass g/molMass share
8OOxygenOxygen215.99931.998
53.26%
14SiSiliconSilicon128.08528.085
46.74%
Total60.083100.00%

Mass share = atoms × atomic mass ÷ molar mass × 100

From IMA formula

Synonyms

  • IMA2004-010
  • Seifertiet
  • UM1999-//-SiO
  • UM1999-32-SiO
  • Unnamed (Orthorhombic Si Oxide)

In other languages

French
Seifertite
German
IMA 2004-010 · Seifertit
Italian
Seifertite
Japanese
ザイフェルト石
Chinese
赛石英
Simplified Chinese
赛石英
Traditional Chinese
賽石英

Classification

Strunz
10th ed.

4.DA.50

  • 4OxidesClass
  • 4.DMetal: Oxygen = 1:2 and similarDivision
  • 4.DAWith small cations: Silica familyGroup
  • 4.DA.50SeifertiteSpecies
Dana
8th ed.

75.01.06

  • 75Tectosilicates Si Tetrahedral FrameworksClass
  • 75.01Si Tetrahedral Frameworks - SiO2 with [4] coordinated SiType
  • 75.01.06— unnamed intermediate level —Group
  • 75.01.06SeifertiteSpecies

Group, growth & confusion

Commonly confused with
8 minerals

Literature, links & citation

Citations
  1. 2008Goresy, Ahmed E.l. Dera, Sharp, Thomas G., Prewitt, Charles T., Chen, Ming, Dubrovinsky, Leonid, Wopenka, Brigitte, Boctor, Nabil Z., Hemley, Russell J. (2008) Seifertite, a dense orthorhombic polymorph of silica from the Martian meteorites Shergotty and Zagami. European Journal of Mineralogy, 20 (4) 523-528 doi:10.1127/0935-1221/2008/0020-1812DOI: 10.1127/0935-1221/2008/0020-1812
  2. 2011Bläß, U., Langenhorst, F. (2011) High-pressure phase transformation of SiO2 polymorphs to Seifertite. Joint Meeting of the DGK, DMG and ÖMG, Salzburg, Austria, September 20-24, 2011; Abstracts Volume, p. 46.
  3. 2011(2011) Seifertite. Handbook of Mineralogy. Mineralogical Society of America
  4. 2013Bläß, Ulrich W. (2013) Shock-induced formation mechanism of seifertite in shergottites. Physics and Chemistry of Minerals, 40 (5) 425-437 doi:10.1007/s00269-013-0580-xDOI: 10.1007/s00269-013-0580-x
  5. 2013Miyahara, Masaaki; Kaneko, Shohei; Ohtani, Eiji; Sakai, Takeshi; Nagase, Toshiro; Kayama, Masahiro; Nishido, Hirotsugu; Hirao, Naohisa (2013) Discovery of seifertite in a shocked lunar meteorite. Nature Communications, 4. 1737 doi:10.1038/ncomms2733DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2733
Cite this entry
@misc{mineral2026,
  author    = {Mineral Index editorial board},
  title     = {Seifertite — Mineral Index},
  year      = {2026},
  url       = {https://mineralindex.org/minerals/seifertite-26715},
  note      = {Accessed 2026-05-11}
}