Levinsonite-(Y)

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Levinsonite-(Y)
General
Category Minerals
Formula (empirical) Y0.3Nd0.2La0.1Sm0.1Gd0.1Al(SO4)2(C2O4)·12(H2O)
Strunz classification 10.AB.70
Dana classification 50.01.09.03
Crystal system monoclinic
Identification
Colourcolourless
Crystal habit prismatic
Fracture brittle, irregular
Luster vitreous
Streak white
Density 2.09

Levinsonite-(Y) is a rare organic mineral named in honor of Alfred A. Levinson (1927-2005), professor of mineralogy at the University of Calgary. It was named in part because of his origination of the internationally used nomenclature for rare-earth minerals, the Levinson modifier, [1] which is a standard in mineralogical nomenclature and allows for the more precise identification and classification of rare-earth minerals. [2]

The type material for Levinsonite-(Y) is kept at the University of Michigan, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. [3]

Discovery

In 1981, T. Dennis Coskren and Robert J. Lauf began investigating a large number of unusual minerals at the Alum Cave Bluff (ACB), Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA. [2] [4] Coskren and Lauf discovered three new rare-earth element minerals, which have subsequently been named coskrenite-(Ce), levinsonite-(Y), and zugshunstite-(Ce). After submission to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), the naming of Levinsonite-(Y) was approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names and given the IMA number 1996-057. [5]

References

  1. Burke, Ernst A.J. (2008). ""Tidying up mineral names: an IMA-CNMNC scheme for suffixes, hyphens and diacritical marks"". Mineralogical Record. 39 (2): 131–135.
  2. 1 2 Rouse, R. C.; Peacor, D. R.; Essene, E. J.; Coskren, T. D.; Lauf, R. J. (2001-04-01). "The new minerals levinsonite-(Y) [(Y, Nd,Ce)Al(SO4)2(C2O4) · 12H2O] and zugshunstite-(Ce) [(Ce,Nd,La)Al(SO4)2(C2O4) · 12H2O]: Coexisting oxalates with different structures and differentiation of LREE and HREE1>" . Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 65 (7): 1101–1115. doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(00)00568-8. ISSN   0016-7037.
  3. "Levinsonite-(Y) at The Handbook of Mineralogy" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-10-24.
  4. "Levinsonite-(Y) Mineral Data". webmineral.com. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  5. https://www.mindat.org/min-7024.html