Leifite

Here's a perky containing a short "bundle" of acicular Leifite crystals from famous Mount Saint-Hilaire, Quebec. Leifite is a rare beryllium tectosilicate. Tectosilicates are built on a framework of tetrahedra with silicon or aluminium at the centre and oxygen at the vertices; they include feldspars and zeolites, but interestingly, leifite does not belong in either of these categories. Neat!