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The EGU 2020 abstract submissions are now open for the next two months! Every few days, we will highlight a geochemistry, mineralogy, petrology and/or volcanology session right here – great news if you are paralysed by indecision or overwhelmed by the number of sessions. Today it’s the turn of GMPV1.7, “Geochronology in hot and dynamic systems: approaches and tools to unravel the ...[Read More]

#mineralmonday: your weekly* dose of obscure mineralogy, every Monday** [*not guaranteed; **or possibly Tuesday-Sunday] What is it? Tiptopite: K2Na1.5Ca0.5Li3Be6(PO4)6(OH)2•(H2O) What’s it made of?  Take a deep breath and recite after me: potassium, sodium, calcium, lithium, beryllium, phosphorus, oxygen and water (H2O). Is it pretty? Yes, it’s a beautiful fibrous mineral. You wouldn&# ...[Read More]

#mineralmonday: your weekly* dose of obscure mineralogy, every Monday** [*not guaranteed; **or possibly Tuesday-Sunday] What is it? Sengierite: Cu2(UO2)2V2O8.6(H2O) What’s it made of? A few useful metals – copper (Cu), vanadium (V), uranium (U), plus oxygen (O) and water (H2O). So by ‘useful’ you mean ‘radioactive’? Pretty much. The main reason people have been ...[Read More]

What is it? Lithiophilite, LiMnPO4 What’s it made of? Lithium (Li), manganese (Mn), phosphorus (P) and oxygen (O). The PO4 at the end of the formula makes this a phosphate mineral (phosphorus + oxygen = phosphate). What’s it’s structure? The way the different atoms are arranged in lithiophilite is described as orthorhombic, which means the crystal is built of lots of tiny cuboid- ...[Read More]