a honey-yellow mineral that is a tetragonal silicate of aluminium and calcium
melilite in American English
(ˈmeləˌlait)
noun
a sorosilicate mineral group, consisting chiefly of sodium, calcium, and aluminum silicates, occurring in igneous rocks
Word origin
[1790–1800; ‹ NL melilithus, equiv. to Gk méli honey + líthos-lite]This word is first recorded in the period 1790–1800. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: idealism, modular, peanut, standby, stereotype-lite is a combining form used in the names of minerals or fossils. Other words that usethe affix -lite include: cryolite, natrolite, pharmacolite, scapolite, staurolite
Examples of 'melilite' in a sentence
melilite
The mineral occurs in the vesicles of a melilite-leucite-nephelinite block carried up by later nephelinite lava.
Th.G. Sahama, J. Siivola, P. Rehtijärvi 1973, 'Andremeyerite, a new barium iron silicate, from Nyiragongo, Zaire', Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finlandhttp://www.geologinenseura.fi/bulletin/Volume45/sgs_bt_045_1_pages_001_008.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)
Major element differentiation within the magma column was dominated by melilite fractionation in the early stages.
J. Hertogen, L. Vanlerberghe, M.R. Namegabe 1985, 'Geochemical evolution of the Nyiragongo volcano (Virunga, Western African Rift, Zaire)',Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finlandhttp://www.geologinenseura.fi/bulletin/Volume57/sgs_bt_057_pages_021_035.pdf. Retrieved from DOAJ CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode)