Hazenite mineral
Hazenite is the hydrated potassium sodium magnesium phosphate mineral species KNaMg2(PO4)2(H2O)14, approved as IMA2007-061 and listed as approved in the September 2026 IMA list. It is distinct from elemental phosphorus, magnesium or potassium, the ammonium analog of hazenite, and mixed lake deposits or recovered fertilizers. The original description establishes a natural mineral associated with dried or decomposed cyanobacterial material; it does not establish exclusive biological formation, a quantified recovery process or industrial deployment. Constituent criticality is not inherited.
Identifiers & Classification
| System | Identifier | Label |
|---|---|---|
| IMA |
IMA:2007-061
|
Hazenite |
Microbial & Biochemical Mechanisms (2)
Hazenite associated with cyanobacterial remains at Mono Lake
biomineralization
Microbial
Natural hazenite crystals occurred in or on completely dried or decomposed cyanobacterial material on calcium-carbonate tufa. Decomposition supplying phosphate and cell surfaces providing nucleation sites were proposed explanations. The accepted evidence supports mineral identity and spatial association with microbial remains, not a demonstrated causal requirement for metabolism or an exclusive biological pathway.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
The studied material came from the south shore of Mono Lake, California, at 37 degrees 56 minutes 31 seconds N, 119 degrees 1 minute 42 seconds W, on porous substrates described as mainly calcite and aragonite. This is an observational field collection followed by laboratory mineral characterization, not a controlled culture trial. The original description calls the substrate organisms green algae (cyanobacteria) but supplies no taxonomic identification or strain accession for the field remains; the Lyngbya sp. culture cited from earlier work is not assigned to these specimens. The source describes the lake generally as alkaline and hypersaline from prior literature; those values are not specimen-specific measurements or a validated formation window. Time of crystallization, local pore-water pH, biomass state during nucleation and seasonal dependence were not established.
The studied material came from the south shore of Mono Lake, California, at 37 degrees 56 minutes 31 seconds N, 119 degrees 1 minute 42 seconds W, on porous substrates described as mainly calcite and aragonite. This is an observational field collection followed by laboratory mineral characterization, not a controlled culture trial. The original description calls the substrate organisms green algae (cyanobacteria) but supplies no taxonomic identification or strain accession for the field remains; the Lyngbya sp. culture cited from earlier work is not assigned to these specimens. The source describes the lake generally as alkaline and hypersaline from prior literature; those values are not specimen-specific measurements or a validated formation window. Time of crystallization, local pore-water pH, biomass state during nucleation and seasonal dependence were not established.
Curated Evidence Points:
Partial
Source:
yang_2011
Occurrence and Methods on page 676 and Figure 1 show or describe tufts of crystals associated with dried/decomposed cyanobacterial material. Twenty-point electron-microprobe averages, Raman spectroscopy and powder/single-crystal XRD (Tables 1-6 and Figures 2-3, pages 676-679) establish the reported mineral and its structure. Water in the empirical chemical analysis was calculated by difference to 100%, not independently measured by that analysis. Mineral identity and spatial association do not demonstrate that microorganisms caused crystallization.
Partial
Source:
yang_2011
Formation on pages 679-680 proposes phosphate release during breakdown of phosphorus-bearing organic matter and heterogeneous nucleation on cell membranes, with dissolved lake components supplying Na, K and Mg. No matched sterile substrate experiment, killed-versus-live comparison, phosphate-source tracer, kinetic series or quantitative recovery mass balance tests those proposals in the field material. The abstract and structural discussion suggest an exclusive biological role, which is not established by crystal structure or association and is not adopted here. The authors themselves leave biological control versus biological induction and seasonal effects unresolved.
Context_only
Source:
yang_2011
Page 679 recounts an earlier Lyngbya sp. culture discovery cited to Yang and Sun 2004: a 1:1 mixture of lake and distilled water solidified with 1.2% agar dried after growth, with crystals near dead colonies. That earlier original was not acquired in this curation, so this retrospective paragraph is not treated as an independently inspected culture experiment and its missing controls, incubation temperature, duration and strain identity are not filled in. Struvite experiments cited on page 680 are distinct studies and do not supply matched controls or causal proof for hazenite.
Hazenite-assigned crystals in Stappia sp. 3bis2 lake-water agar cultures
biomineralization
Microbial
Associated Organisms:
Stappia sp. (NCBITaxon:1870903)
A heterotrophic isolate from a submerged Bagno dell’Acqua microbialite produced crystals assigned to potassium-sodium hazenite in supplemented lake-water agar. Diffraction and elemental analysis support a hazenite-rich mixed precipitate for Stappia sp. 3bis2. The observation extends the separate Mono Lake field association with a controlled laboratory culture, but does not demonstrate exclusive microbial formation, the biochemical mechanism or phosphorus recovery from untreated lake water.
Experimental Context & Analytical Limits:
Mazzoni et al. isolated bacteria from submerged microbialite site 2, cultured on LB at pH 9 and 28 degrees C, and used 15-30 microlitre spots of saturated liquid cultures. B4LW contained about 70 percent(v/v)0.22-micrometre-filtered lake water plus 0.4 percent yeast extract, 0.5 percent dextrose, 0.3 percent urea and 1.5 percent agar. It was not filtered lake water alone despite the abstract wording. Table 4 gives initial pH 9 and 35 days at 28 degrees C for the Stappia sp. 3bis2 material; a pH trajectory and independent mineralization-replicate count are not supplied. Crystals for routine XRD were removed from colonies, washed repeatedly with distilled water using low-speed centrifugation and air-dried at 37 degrees C; selected Figure 6 SEM crystals were lifted directly with a needle. XRD semiquantification used peak areas and mineral intensity factors, alongside SEM-EDS morphology/composition. GenBank OR770211.1 corroborates the 3bis2 partial 16S sequence and unresolved Stappia sp. label. Table 3 reports 96.68 percent similarity to a nearest Stappia indica sequence; that does not establish species identity. The phosphate contributions of lake water, yeast extract, agar and inoculum carryover were not separately measured.
Mazzoni et al. isolated bacteria from submerged microbialite site 2, cultured on LB at pH 9 and 28 degrees C, and used 15-30 microlitre spots of saturated liquid cultures. B4LW contained about 70 percent(v/v)0.22-micrometre-filtered lake water plus 0.4 percent yeast extract, 0.5 percent dextrose, 0.3 percent urea and 1.5 percent agar. It was not filtered lake water alone despite the abstract wording. Table 4 gives initial pH 9 and 35 days at 28 degrees C for the Stappia sp. 3bis2 material; a pH trajectory and independent mineralization-replicate count are not supplied. Crystals for routine XRD were removed from colonies, washed repeatedly with distilled water using low-speed centrifugation and air-dried at 37 degrees C; selected Figure 6 SEM crystals were lifted directly with a needle. XRD semiquantification used peak areas and mineral intensity factors, alongside SEM-EDS morphology/composition. GenBank OR770211.1 corroborates the 3bis2 partial 16S sequence and unresolved Stappia sp. label. Table 3 reports 96.68 percent similarity to a nearest Stappia indica sequence; that does not establish species identity. The phosphate contributions of lake water, yeast extract, agar and inoculum carryover were not separately measured.
Curated Evidence Points:
Support
Source:
mazzoni2024
Results 3.3, Table 4 and Figure 6 assign hazenite to the Stappia sp. 3bis2 B4LW crystals after 35 days, with SEM-EDS detecting K, Na, Mg and P. Table 4 reports 86 wt percent hazenite with 7 percent calcite, 6 percent ankerite and 1 percent kaolinite; prose and abstract describe about 85 percent. These are semiquantitative proportions of sampled mixed solids, not percent phosphorus recovered, a phase-pure product or a whole-plate production yield.
Support
Source:
mazzoni2024_si
Figure SM1 shows the original Stappia sp. 3bis2 B4LW 35 day diffraction pattern with multiple hazenite-labelled reflections alongside calcite, ankerite and kaolinite. It supports the reported phase assignment and mixture, not an independently refined crystal structure or a replicated quantitative yield.
Partial
Source:
mazzoni2024
Methods 2.4 states that uninoculated plates incubated under the same conditions produced no precipitation and that crystals occurred only at inoculation sites. No killed-cell, cell-free spent-medium, nutrient-source or phosphate-tracer comparison resolves metabolism versus nucleation or reagent/inoculum phosphate contributions. The molecular mechanism is explicitly unresolved in Discussion; hypothetical wastewater treatment and fertilizer applications are not demonstrated deployment.
Partial
Source:
mazzoni2024_si
The cited Figure SM2 depicts crystals within a Stappia sp. 3bis2 colony on B4CaCl2 at pH 8 after 11 days, not the B4LW pH 9/35 day hazenite arm or a displayed uninoculated B4LW plate. It therefore does not independently document the exact hazenite-arm blank claimed in Methods.
Partial
Source:
mazzoni2024
Figure 7 shows additional source-named Bacillus, Sutcliffiella and Metabacillus isolates with similar crystals and selected EDS spectra, but Table 4 and Figure SM1 provide hazenite XRD for Stappia 3bis2 only. Those other isolates are not assigned the same diffraction-confirmed phase fraction. Figure 7 introductory wording says 35 days for all, whereas panel E explicitly shows 3bis8 at 100 days. Closest 16S relatives are not confirmed species or causal members of the natural community. Hazenite was not reported in the sampled Pantelleria microbialites themselves.
Context_only
Source:
stappia_3bis2_sequence
The deposited partial 16S accession identifies source strain 3bis2 as Stappia sp. , agreeing with the retained unresolved label; it does not authenticate a whole genome, infer a pathway or establish Stappia indica identity.
Sources & References
-
ima_2026_09: IMA-CNMNC. The New IMA List of Minerals, September 2026. Pages 1-2 definitions; hazenite row page 91, approved 2007-061. Previously acquired official original re-inspected on 14 October 2026.
https://cnmnc.units.it/files/editor/IMA_Master_List_(2026-09).pdf (accessed 2026-10-14) -
yang_2011: Yang, Hexiong; Sun, Henry J.; Downs, Robert T. (2011). Hazenite, KNaMg2(PO4)2·14H2O, a new biologically related phosphate mineral, from Mono Lake, California, U.S.A. American Mineralogist 96:675-681. DOI 10.2138/am.2011.3668. Complete seven-page published original inspected through RRUFF, including Tables 1-6 and Figures 1-3.
https://doi.org/10.2138/am.2011.3668 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
mazzoni2024: Mazzoni et al. (2024). Carbonate precipitation and phosphate trapping by microbialite isolates from an alkaline insular lake (Bagno dell’Acqua, Pantelleria Island, Italy). Frontiers in Microbiology15:1391968. DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1391968; original 17-page article, Methods 2.2/2.4, Results 3.3, Tables 3-4 and Figures 6-7.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1391968 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
mazzoni2024_si: Supplementary Material to Mazzoni et al. (2024), DOI 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1391968.s001; original Table_1 DOCX, Frontiers Figshare article25877044/file46473064, FiguresSM1-SM3.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2024.1391968.s001 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
stappia_3bis2_sequence: NCBI GenBank OR770211.1, partial 16S rRNA gene from Stappia sp. strain 3bis2; official sequence XML verified14 October 2026. Linked taxon1870903 is an unresolved Stappia sp. entry, not a strain-specific taxonomy identifier.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nuccore/OR770211.1 (accessed 2026-10-14) -
ncbi_stappia_sp: NCBI Taxonomy 1870903, Stappia sp. ; official XML checked14 October 2026. This unresolved organism entry does not establish Stappia indica identity for the isolate.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi?id=1870903&mode=Info (accessed 2026-10-14)
Curation History
| Timestamp | Curator | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-10-14T10:04:11.770019+00:00 |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | CREATE | Created hazenite mineral identity with primary field association to cyanobacterial remains, keeping formation hypotheses separate from demonstrated identity and excluding unsupported exclusive biological causality. |
2026-10-14T10:48:23.527446+00:00 |
codex (GPT-6; codex) | EDIT | Added the independently sourced 2024 Stappia culture experiment while retaining the 2011 field mechanism unchanged; separated phase proportion from recovery and preserved medium, controls and organism-resolution limits. |
Record source: data/records/hazenite.yaml