What is "carpathite"

n. (context mineral English) A rare hydrocarbon mineral composed of coronene.

Carpathite (also pendletonite and karpatite) is a very rare hydrocarbon mineral. It is the mineral form of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon coronene with formula: CH.

It was first described in 1955 for an occurrence in Transcarpathian Oblast, Ukraine. It was named for the Carpathian Mountains. It has also been reported from the Presov Region of the Slovak Republic, the Kamchatka Oblast in Russia and from San Benito County, California.

It occurs at the contact zone of a diorite intrusive into argillite within cavities in the Ukraine. In the California occurrence it appears as a low temperature hydrothermal phase. It is associated with idrialite, amorphous organic material, calcite, barite, quartz, cinnabar and metacinnabar.