A rare mineral consisting of sodium aluminum fluoride (Na₅Al₃F₁₄), found in some granitic rocks and important to mineralogists.
From Greek 'chion' (snow) plus 'lithos' (stone), literally 'snow-stone,' referring either to its pale appearance or the cold environments where it forms. Named in the 19th century by mineralogists.
Mineral naming often uses Greek roots to create poetic descriptions—'chiolite' sounds like it describes a property, but it's actually a specific combination of five sodium, three aluminum, and fourteen fluorine atoms arranged in space.
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