Mineral variety

In geology and mineralogy, a mineral variety is a subset of a mineral species or mineraloid with some special characteristic, such as specific impurities or structural defects.A. S.Povarennykh (1972): "The Mineral Species as a Basic Concept of Mineralogy", pages 79-80. In: Crystal Chemical Classification of Minerals, Springer {{doi|10.1007/978-1-4684-1743-2_3}} {{ISBN|978-1-4684-1745-6}} For example, amethyst is a variety of quartz with a purple tinge due in part to iron impurities.

Mineral varieties can be further subdivided into sub-varieties.

Unlike mineral species, mineral varieties are not defined or named by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA).