Plural of cryolite; a mineral containing sodium, aluminum, and fluorine, used in aluminum production and glassmaking.
From Greek 'kryos' (cold) and 'lithos' (stone), because the mineral has a very low melting point. Named in the 1860s by geologists studying Greenland mineral deposits; the '-lite' suffix indicates a mineral or rock.
Cryolite was so crucial to 20th-century aluminum production that Greenland's natural deposits became strategically important during WWII—without it, aircraft manufacturing would have been nearly impossible!
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