This is a list of
mineralA mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. A rock, by comparison, is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids, and need not have a specific...
s named after people. The chemical composition follows name when available.
- For other lists of eponym
An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named. One who is referred to as eponymous is someone who gives his or her name to something, e.g...
s (names derived from people) see Lists of etymologies.
- For a list of eponyms sorted by name see List of eponyms.
Sorted by name:
- Abswurmbachite
Abswurmbachite is a copper manganese silicate mineral . It was first described in 1991 and named after Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach, a German mineralogist. It crystallizes in the tetragonal system. Its Mohs scale rating is 6.5 and a specific gravity of 4.96...
((Cu,Mn2+)Mn3+6O8SiO4) – German mineralogist Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach
- Adamite
Adamite is a zinc arsenate hydroxide mineral, Zn2AsO4OH. It is a mineral that typically occurs in the oxidized or weathered zone above zinc ore occurrences. Pure adamite is colorless, but usually it possess yellow color due to Fe compounds admixture. Tints of green also occur...
Zn2AsO4OH – French mineralogist Gilbert Joseph Adam (1795-1881)
- Aheylite
Aheylite is a phosphate mineral found in Bolivia. It is named for Allen V. Heyl, a geologist for the United States Geological Survey. It is pale blue to pale green and has a triclinic crystal system.- External links :* from mindat.org* from...
((FeIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
2+,ZnZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
)Al6[(OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
HHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
)4|(PPhosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate rocks. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms - white phosphorus and red phosphorus...
O4)2]2·4H2O) – American geologist Allen V.
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This is a list of
mineralA mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through geological processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. A rock, by comparison, is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids, and need not have a specific...
s named after people. The chemical composition follows name when available.
- For other lists of eponym
An eponym is the name of a person, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named. One who is referred to as eponymous is someone who gives his or her name to something, e.g...
s (names derived from people) see Lists of etymologies.
- For a list of eponyms sorted by name see List of eponyms.
Sorted by name:
A
- Abswurmbachite
Abswurmbachite is a copper manganese silicate mineral . It was first described in 1991 and named after Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach, a German mineralogist. It crystallizes in the tetragonal system. Its Mohs scale rating is 6.5 and a specific gravity of 4.96...
((Cu,Mn2+)Mn3+6O8SiO4) – German mineralogist Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach
- Adamite
Adamite is a zinc arsenate hydroxide mineral, Zn2AsO4OH. It is a mineral that typically occurs in the oxidized or weathered zone above zinc ore occurrences. Pure adamite is colorless, but usually it possess yellow color due to Fe compounds admixture. Tints of green also occur...
Zn2AsO4OH – French mineralogist Gilbert Joseph Adam (1795-1881)
- Aheylite
Aheylite is a phosphate mineral found in Bolivia. It is named for Allen V. Heyl, a geologist for the United States Geological Survey. It is pale blue to pale green and has a triclinic crystal system.- External links :* from mindat.org* from...
((FeIron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
2+,ZnZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
)Al6[(OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
HHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
)4|(PPhosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus is commonly found in inorganic phosphate rocks. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms - white phosphorus and red phosphorus...
O4)2]2·4H2O) – American geologist Allen V. Heyl
- Alexandrite (variety of Chrysoberyl
The mineral or gemstone chrysoberyl, not to be confused with beryl, is an aluminate of beryllium with the formula BeAl
2O
4. The name chrysoberyl is derived from the Greek words chrysos and beryllos, meaning "a gold-white spar". Despite the similarity of their names, chrysoberyl...
) – Tsar Alexander II of RussiaAlexander II Nikolaevich , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor, or Czar, of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
(1818-1881)
- Alforsite
Alforsite is a mineral, Ba5Cl3, composed of barium, phosphorus, chlorine, and oxygen. It was discovered in 1981, and named to honor geologist John T. Alfors of the Alforsite is a mineral, Ba5Cl(PO4)3, composed of barium, phosphorus,...
Ba5Cl(PO4)3 – American geologist John T. Alfors (1930 - 2005)
- Allabogdanite
Allabogdanite is a very rare phosphide mineral with formula 2P, found in 1997 in a meteorite....
(Fe,Ni)2P – Alla Bogdanova, Geological Institute, Kola Science Centre of Russian Academy of Sciences
- Ankerite
Ankerite is a calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese carbonate mineral of the group of rhombohedral carbonates with formula: Ca2...
Ca(Fe,Mg,Mn)(CO3)2 – an Austrian mineralogist Matthias Joseph AnkerMatthias Joseph Anker was an Austrian geologist who was a native of Graz. Some sources place his birth date as May 1, 1772...
(1771-1843)
- Arfvedsonite
Arfvedsonite is a sodium amphibole mineral with composition: Na34Fe3+Si8O222. It crystallizes in the monoclinic prismatic crystal system and typically occurs as greenish black to bluish grey fibrous to radiating or stellate prisms...
Na3(Fe,Mg)4FeSi8O22(OH)2 – Swedish chemist Johan August ArfwedsonJohan August Arfwedson was a Swedish chemist who discovered the chemical element lithium in 1817 by isolating it as a salt.- Life and work :...
(1792-1841)
- Armalcolite
Armalcolite is a mineral that was discovered at Tranquility Base on the Moon by the Apollo 11 crew in 1969. It was named for Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, the three Apollo 11 astronauts...
(Mg,Fe++)Ti2O5 – American astronauts ARM Neil ArmstrongNeil Alden Armstrong is an American aviator and a former astronaut, test pilot, university professor, and United States Naval Aviator. He was the first person to set foot on the Moon. His first spaceflight was aboard Gemini 8 in 1966, for which he was the command pilot...
, AL Buzz AldrinBuzz Aldrin is an American mechanical engineer, retired United States Air Force pilot and astronaut who was the Lunar Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first lunar landing...
and COL Michael CollinsMichael Collins is an Irish American former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different...
B
- Baddeleyite
Baddeleyite is a rare zirconium oxide mineral , occurring in a variety of monoclinic prismatic crystal forms. It is transparent to translucent, has high indices of refraction , and ranges from colorless to yellow, green, and dark brown...
ZrZirconium is a chemical element with the symbol Zr and atomic number 40. It is a lustrous, gray-white, strong transition metal that resembles titanium. Zirconium is used as an alloying agent due to its high resistance to corrosion. It is never found as a native metal; it is obtained mainly from...
OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
2 – Joseph Baddeley
- Bazzite
Bazzite is a beryllium scandium cyclosilicate mineral with chemical formula: Be32Si6O18. It crystallizes in the hexagonal crystal system typically as small blue hexagonal crystals up to 2 cm length...
Be3(Sc,Fe)2Si6O18 – Italian engineer Alessandro E. Bazzi
- Bertrandite
Bertrandite is a beryllium sorosilicate hydroxide mineral with composition: Be4Si2O72. Bertrandite is a colorless to pale yellow orthorhombic mineral with a hardness of 6-7. It is commonly found in beryllium rich pegmatites and is in part an alteration of...
Be4Si2O7(OH)2 – French mineralogist Emile Bertrand (1844-1909)
- Bilibinskite Au2Cu2PbTe2+ – Soviet geologist Yuri A. Bilibin (1901-1952)
- Bixbite Be
Beryllium is the chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4.A bivalent element, beryllium is found naturally only combined with other elements in minerals. Notable gemstones which contain beryllium include Beryl and Chrysoberyl...
3(AlAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
MnManganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
)2SiSilicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon...
6OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
18 – ; American mineralogist Maynard BixbyMaynard Bixby was an American mineralogist. Bixby was born in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania and graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1876. Bixby worked for a time in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania as a bookkeeper and studied law...
- Bixbyite
Bixbyite is a manganese iron oxide mineral with formula: 2O3. The iron:manganese ratio is quite variable and many specimens have almost no iron. It is a metallic dark black with a Mohs hardness of 6.0 - 6.5 and a specific gravity of 4.9 - 5.0...
(Fe,Mn)2O3 – American mineralogist Maynard BixbyMaynard Bixby was an American mineralogist. Bixby was born in Wyalusing, Pennsylvania and graduated from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1876. Bixby worked for a time in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania as a bookkeeper and studied law...
- Blödite
Blödite is a hydrated sodium magnesium sulfate mineral with formula: Na2Mg2·4.The mineral is clear to yellow in color and forms monoclinic crystals...
Na2Mg(SO4)2•4(H2O – German chemist Carl August Blöde (1773-1820)
- Blossite αCu2V2O7 – mineralogist F. Donald Bloss
- Bornite
Bornite is a sulfide mineral with chemical composition Cu
5FeS
4 that crystallizes in the orthorhombic system. It has a brown to copper-red color on fresh surfaces that tarnishes to various iridescent shades of blue to purple in places...
Cu5FeS4 – Austrian Mineralogist Ignaz von Born (1742-1791)
- Bournonite
Bournonite is a sulfosalt mineral species, a sulfantimonite of lead and copper with the formula PbCuSbS3.It was first mentioned by Philip Rashleigh in 1797 as an ore of antimony and was more completely described in 1804 by French crystallographer and mineralogist Jacques Louis de Bournon...
PbCuSbS3 – French crystallographerCrystallography is the experimental science of determining the arrangement of atoms in solids. In older usage, it is the scientific study of crystals...
and mineralogist Jacques Louis de Bournon (1751–1825)
- Briartite
Briartite is an opaque iron-grey metallic sulfide mineral, Cu2GeS4 with traces of Ga and Sn, found as inclusions in other germanium-gallium-bearing sulfides....
Cu2(Zn,Fe)GeS4 – Belgian geologist Gaston BriartGaston Briart was a Belgian geologist and mining engineer who worked and studied rock formations at Prince Léopold mine, Kipushi, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo.The mineral Briartite, discovered in Kipushi in 1965, is named in his honour....
- Brookite
Brookite is a mineral consisting of titanium oxide, TiO2, and hence identical with rutile and anatase in composition, but crystallizing in the orthorhombic system...
TiO2 – English mineralogist Henry James Brooke (1771–1857)
- Brucite
Brucite is the mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, with the chemical formula Mg
2. It is a common alteration product of periclase in marble; a low-temperature hydrothermal vein mineral in metamorphosed limestones and chlorite schists; and formed during serpentinization of dunites...
Mg(OH)2 – American mineralogist Archibald Bruce (1777-1818).
C
- Canfieldite
Canfieldite is a rare silver tin sulfide mineral with formula: Ag8SnS6. The mineral typically contains variable amounts of germanium substitution in the tin site and tellurium in the sulfur site. There is a complete series between canfieldite and its germanium analogue,...
Ag8SnS6 – American mining engineer Frederick Alexander Canfield (1849-1926)
- Carnallite
Carnallite is an evaporite mineral, a hydrated potassium magnesium chloride with formula: KMgCl3·6. It is variably colored yellow to white, reddish, and sometimes colorless or blue. It is usually massive to fibrous with rare pseudohexagonal orthorhombic crystals. It is transparent to...
KMgCl3•6(H2O) – Prussian mining engineer, Rudolf von Carnall (1804-1874)
- Carnotite
Carnotite is a potassium uranium vanadate mineral with chemical formula: K
222·3H
2O. The water content can vary and small amounts of calcium, barium, magnesium, iron, and sodium are often present.Carnotite is a bright to greenish yellow mineral that occurs...
K2(UO2)2(VO4)2 – French mining engineer and chemist Marie Adolphe Carnot (1839-1920)
- Cernyite Cu2CdSnS4 – Canadian mineralogist Petr Cerny
Petr Černý FRSC is an award-winning mineralogy professor at the University of Manitoba.Černý studies focus on Pegmatite. He is best known for his geological mapping of Bernic Lake, Manitoba in the 1970s...
- Cesbronite
Cesbronite is a tellurium oxide mineral with the chemical formula Cu526·2. It is colored green. Its crystals are orthorhombic to dipyramidal. It is named after Fabien Cesbron, a French mineralogist. It is found in the Bambollita mine in the Mexican state of Sonora....
Cu6(TeO3)2(OH) 62H20 – French mineralogist Fabian Cesbron
- Cleveite
Cleveite is a radioactive mineral containing uranium and found in Norway. It is an impure variety of uraninite, and has the composition UO2 with about 10% of the uranium substituted by rare earth elements...
UO2•UO3•PO•ThO2 – Swedish chemist Per Teodor ClevePer Teodor Cleve was a Swedish chemist and geologist.After graduating from the Stockholm Gymnasium in 1858, Cleve matriculated at Uppsala University in May 1858, where he received his PhD in 1863...
(1840–1905)
- Clintonite
Clintonite is a calcium magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate mineral. It is a member of the margarite group of micas and the subgroup often referred to as the brittle micas. Clintonite has the chemical formula: Ca3O102...
Ca(Mg,Al)3(Al3Si)O10(OH)2 – De Witt Clinton (1769-1828)
- Coesite
Coesite is a form of silicon dioxide SiO2 that is formed when very high pressure and moderately high temperature are applied to quartz. Coesite was first synthesized by Loring Coes, Jr., a chemist at the Norton Company, in 1953. In 1960, coesite was found by Edward C. T...
(form of SiO2)– Loring Coes, Jr.
- Coffinite
Coffinite is a uranium bearing silicate mineral: U1-x4x.It occurs as black incrustations, dark to pale-brown in thin section. It has a grayish black streak. It has a brittle to conchoidal fracture...
U(SiO4)1-x(OH)4x – American geologist Reuben Clare Coffin
- Colemanite
Colemanite is a borate mineral found in evaporite deposits of alkaline lacustrine environments...
(Ca2B6O11•5H2O) – mine owner William T. Coleman*William Thaddeus Coleman, Jr. - American civil rights lawyer and U.S. Secretary of Transportation in the Ford Administration*William Tell Coleman - San Francisco businessman and leader of the San Francisco Vigilance Movement...
(1824-1893)
- Cooperite
Cooperite is a grey mineral consisting of platinum sulfide , general in combinations with sulfides of other elements such as palladium and nickel . Its general formula is S. It is mined as an ore of platinum and platinum group elements such as palladium. It occurs in South Africa in minable...
(Pt,Pd,Ni)S – mineralogist R. Cooper
- Cordierite
Cordierite or iolite is a magnesium iron aluminium cyclosilicate. Iron is almost always present and a solid solution exists between Mg-rich cordierite and Fe-rich sekaninaite with a series formula: 2Al3 to 2Al3...
(Mg,Fe)2Al4Si5O18 to (Fe,Mg)2Al4Si5O18 – French geologist P. L. A. Cordier (1777-1861)
- Covellite
Covellite is a rare copper sulfide mineral with the formula CuS. This indigo blue mineral was the first discovered natural superconductor...
CuS – Niccola Covelli (1790-1829)
- Crookesite
Crookesite is a selenide mineral composed of copper and selenium with variable thallium and silver. Its chemical formula is reported either as Cu7Se4 or 2Se...
Cu7(Tl,Ag)Se4 – English chemist and physicist Sir William CrookesSir William cookies, OM, FRS was a chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, in London, and worked on spectroscopy.He was pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing the Crookes tube.-Early years:...
(1832-1919)
D
- Dawsonite
Dawsonite is a mineral composed of sodium aluminium carbonate hydroxide, chemical formula NaAlCO32. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. It is not mined for ore. It was discovered in 1874 during the construction of the Redpath Museum in a feldspathic dike on...
NaAlCO3(OH)2 – Canadian geologist Sir John William DawsonSir John William Dawson, CMG, FRS, FRSC , was a Canadian geologist and university administrator.- Life and work :...
(1820–1899)
- Delafossite CuFeO2 – French mineralogist Gabriel Delafosse (1796-1878)
- Dickite
Dickite has molecular weight of 258.16 grams. It is a phyllosilicate clay mineral chemically composed of aluminium, silicon, hydrogen and oxygen contributing 20.90%, 21.76%, 1.56%, and 55.78% each respectively...
Al2Si2O5(OH)4 – Scottish metallurgical chemist Allan Brugh Dick (1833-1926)
- Dollaseite-(Ce)
Dollaseite- is a sorosilicate end-member epidote mineral, with the formula CaREE+3Mg2AlSi3O11F, where cerium is the dominant rare earth element. It also includes lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, gadolinium, and since cerium is the dominate...
CaCeMg2AlSi3O11F(OH) – AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
geologist Wayne A. Dollase (1938-), geology professor at UCLA
- Dolomite
Dolomite is the name of a sedimentary carbonate rock and a mineral, both composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg
2 found in crystals....
CaMg(CO3)2 – French naturalist and geologist Déodat Gratet de DolomieuDieudonné Sylvain Guy Tancrède de Dolomieu usually known as Déodat de Dolomieu was a French geologist; the rock dolomite was named after him....
(1750-1801)
- Domeykite
Domeykite is a copper arsenide mineral, Cu
3As. It crystallizes in the isometric system, although crystals are very rare. It typically forms as irregular masses or botryoidal forms...
Cu3As – Polish geologist and mineralogist Ignacy DomeykoIgnacy Domeyko or Domejko was a 19th-century Chilean geologist, mineralogist and educator who was born in Nesvizh, Imperial Russia , into a Polish-Lithuanian family...
(1802-1889)
- Donnayite NaCaSr3Y(CO3)6•3H20 – Canadian professors J. D. H. Donnay and G. Donnay
- Dumortierite
Dumortierite is a fibrous variably colored aluminium boro-silicate mineral, Al6.5-7BO333. Dumortierite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system typically forming fibrous aggregates of slender prismatic crystals. The crystals are vitreous and vary in color...
Al6.5-7BO3(SiO4)3(O,OH)3 – French paleontologist Eugene Dumortier (1803-1873)
F
- Ferberite
Ferberite is the iron endmember of the manganese - iron wolframite solid solution series. The manganese endmember is hübnerite. Ferberite is a black monoclinic mineral composed of iron and tungstate, FeWO4....
FeWO4 – Moritz Rudolph Ferber (1805-1875)
- Ferrierite
The ferrierite group of zeolite minerals consists of three very similar species: ferrierite-Mg, ferrierite-Na, and ferrierite-K, based on the dominant cation in the A location. Ferrierites are orthorhombic minerals with highly variable cationic composition,...
(Na,K)2Mg(Si,Al)18O36(OH)•9H2O – Canadian geologist and mining engineer Walter Frederick FerrierWalter Frederick Ferrier was a Canadian geologist and mining engineer.He graduated form McGill University’s school of mining engineering. He was a tireless mineral collector and was known for walking straight into mining offices to request specimens. Consequently, he amassed large collections of...
(1865-1950)
- Fergusonite
Fergusonite is a mineral comprising a complex oxide of various rare earth elements. The chemical formula of fergusonite species is NbO4, where RE = rare-earth elements in solid solution with Y. Yttrium is usually dominant , but sometimes Ce or Nd may predominate in molar proportion...
(Ce,La,Nd)NbO4 – British Politician and mineral collector Robert Ferguson of Raith (1767–1840)
- Forsterite
Forsterite is the magnesium rich end-member of the olivine solid solution series. Forsterite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system with cell parameters a 4.75 Å , b 10.20 Å and c 5.98 Å .Forsterite is associated with igneous and metamorphic rocks and has also been found in meteorites...
(MgMagnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12 and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the earth's crust by mass, although ninth in the Universe as a whole...
2SiSilicon is the most common metalloid. It is a chemical element, which has the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, silicon is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon...
OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
4) – German naturalist Johann Reinhold ForsterJohann Reinhold Forster was a German Lutheran pastor and naturalist of partial Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America...
(1729-1798)
- Franckeite
Franckeite, chemical formula Pb5Sn3Sb2S14, belongs to a family of complex sulfide minerals. Franckeite is a sulfosalt. It is closely related to cylindrite. It is named after the mining engineers, Carl and Ernest Francke. It can be found in Bolivia at...
Pb5Sn3Sb2S14 – mining engineers Carl Francke and Ernest Francke
- Freieslebenite
Freieslebenite is a rare sulfide mineral of antimony, lead and silver with formula AgPbSbS3 and molecular weight of 533.02 g/mol. It is an opaque non-fluorescent mineral which has a hydrothermal origin. It is metallic, with a specific gravity of 6.3 and a Mohs hardness of 2.5 - about...
AgPbSbS3 – Johann Karl Freiesleben (1774-1846)
- Friedrichite CU5Pb5Bi7S18 – Austrian geologist O. M. Friedrich
G
- Gadolinite
Gadolinite is a mineral of a nearly black color and vitreous luster, and consisting principally of the silicates of cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, yttrium, beryllium, and iron with formula: 2FeBe2Si2O10...
(Ce,La,Nd,Y)2FeBe2Si2O10 – Finnish mineralogist- chemist Johan GadolinJohan Gadolin was a Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist. Gadolin discovered the chemical element yttrium...
(1760-1852)
- Gahnite
Gahnite, ZnAl2O4, is a rare mineral belonging to the spinel group. It forms octahedral crystals which may be green, blue, yellow, brown or grey. It occurs in Falun, Sweden where it is found in pegmatites and skarns, contact metamorphic rocks...
ZnAl2O4 – Swedish chemist Johan Gottlieb GahnJohan Gottlieb Gahn was a Swedish chemist and metallurgist who discovered manganese in 1774.Gahn studied in Uppsala 1762-1770 and became acquainted with chemsists Torbern Bergman och Carl Wilhelm Scheele...
(1745-1818)
- Garnierite
Garnierite is a general name for a green nickel ore which is found in pockets and veins within weathered and serpentinized ultramafic rocks. The name was given by Jules Garnier who first described it 1864 for an occurrence in New Caledonia...
– Jules Garnier
- Geigerite
Geigerite is a mineral, a complex hydrous manganese arsenate with formula: Mn522·10H2O. It forms triclinic pinacoidal vitreous colorless, red to brown crystals. It has a Mohs hardness of 3 and a specific gravity of 3.05.It was discovered in Grischun,...
Mn5(AsO3OH)2(AsO4)2•10H2O – Swiss mineralogist Thomas P. Geiger
- Genkinite (Pt,Pd)4Sb3 – Soviet mineralogist A. D. Genkin
- Gibbsite
Gibbsite, Al3, is one of the mineral forms of aluminium hydroxide. It is often designated as γ-Al3 . It is also sometimes called hydrargillite ....
Al(OH)3 – American collector G. Gibbs (1776-1833)
- Goethite
Goethite , named after the German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, is an iron bearing oxide mineral found in soil and other low-temperature environments. Goethite has been well known since prehistoric times for its use as a pigment. Evidence has been found of its use in paint pigment samples...
FeOOH – German polymath Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust...
(1749-1832)
- Grunerite
Grunerite is a mineral of the amphibole group of minerals with formula Fe7Si8O222. It is the iron endmember of the grunerite-cummingtonite series. It forms as fibrous, columnar or massive aggregates of crystals. The crystals are monoclinic prismatic. The...
Fe7Si8O22(OH)2 – Swiss-French chemist Louis Gruner
- Gunningite
Gunningite is one of the minerals in the Kieserite group. Its chemical formula is SO4·H2O. Its name honours Henry Cecil Gunning of the Geological Survey of Canada and a Professor at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.-Occurrence:Gunningite is rare...
(Zn,Mn2+)SO4•H2O – Canadian geologist and academic Henry C. GunningHenry Cecil Gunning, FRSC was a Canadian geologist and academic. A mineral was named in his honour.-Early life:Gunning was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. At the age of six his family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. His father established a hardware business there.Gunning earned a B.A.Sc....
(1901–1991)
H
- Haggertyite
Haggertyite is a rare barium, iron, magnesium, titanate mineral: BaO19 first described in 1996 from the Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro in Pike County, Arkansas...
Ba(Fe2+6Ti5Mg)O19 – Stephen E. Haggerty (born 1938)
- Hapkeite
Hapkeite is a mineral discovered in the Dhofar 280 meteorite found in 2000 in Oman on the Arabian peninsula. The meteorite is interpreted to originate from the Moon, specifically it appears to be a fragment of lunar highland breccia. Hapkeite's composition is of silicon and iron, and is similar to...
Fe2Si – American planetary scientistPlanetary science is the scientific study of planets, moons, and planetary systems, in particular those of the Solar System and the processes that form them. It studies objects ranging in size from micrometeoroids to gas giants, aiming to determine their composition, dynamics, formation,...
Bruce Hapke
- Hawleyite
Hawleyite is a rare sulfide mineral in the sphalerite group, dimorphous and easily confused with greenockite. Chemically, it is a cadmium sulfide, and occurs as a bright yellow coating on sphalerite or siderite in vugs, deposited by meteoric waters...
CdS – Canadian mineralogist James Edwin HawleyJames Edwin Hawley was an award winning Canadian geologist and distinguished Professor of Mineralogy at Queen's University....
(1897–1965)
- Heulandite
thumb|HeulanditeHeulandite is the name of a series of tecto-silicate minerals of the zeolite group. Prior to 1997, heulandite was recognized as a mineral species, but a reclassification in 1997 by the International Mineralogical Association changed it to a series name, with the mineral species...
(Ca,Na)2-3Al3(Al,Si)2Si13O36·12H2O – English mineral collector Henry Heuland (1778–1856)
- Hübnerite
Hübnerite or hubnerite is a mineral consisting of manganese tungstate . It is the manganese endmember of the manganese - iron wolframite solid solution series....
MnWO4 – German mineralologist Adolf Huebner
- Hutchinsonite
Hutchinsonite is a sulfosalt mineral of thallium, arsenic and lead with formula 2As5S9. Hutchinsonite is a rare hydrothermal mineral....
(Tl,Pb)2As5S9 – Cambridge mineralogist Arthur Hutchinson (1866–1937)
- Huttonite
Huttonite is a thorium nesosilicate mineral with the chemical formula
4 and which crystallizes in the monoclinic system. It is dimorphous with tetragonal thorite, and isostructual with monazite. An uncommon mineral, huttonite forms transparent or translucent cream–colored crystals...
ThSiO4 – New Zealand American mineralogist Colin Osborne Hutton (1910–1971)
J
K
- Kassite
Kassite is a rare mineral with formula CaTi2O42. It crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system and forms radiating rosettes and pseudo-hexagonal tabular crystals which are commonly twinned. Crystals are brownish pink to pale yellow and are translucent with an...
CaTi2O4(OH)2 – Russian geologist Nikolai Grigor’evich Kassin (1885-1949)
- Kieserite
Kieserite is a highly unstable magnesium sulfate mineral . It has a vitreous luster and it is colorless, grayish-white or yellowish. Its hardness is 3.5 and it has a monoclinic crystal system...
(MgSO4•H2O) – Dietrich Georg von KieserDietrich Georg von Kieser was a German physician born in Harburg. He studied medicine at the Universities of Würzburg and Göttingen, receiving his doctorate from the latter institution in 1804. For most of his career he was a professor at the University of Jena, where from 1824 to 1862 he served...
(1779-1862)
- Kleberite FeTi6013•4H20 – German professor Will Kleber (1906-1970)
- Kobellite
Kobellite is a gray, fibrous, metallic mineral, a sulfide of antimony, bismuth, and lead. It is a member of the izoklakeite - berryite series with silver and iron substituting in the copper site and a vaying ratio of bismuth, antimony, and lead. It crystallizes with orthorhombic dipyramidal crystals...
(Pb22Cu4(Bi,Sb)30S69) – German mineralogist Wolfgang Franz von KobellWolfgang Xavier Franz Baron von Kobell was a German mineralogist and writer of short stories and poems in Bavarian. He was born in Munich, Bavaria and died there....
(1803-1882)
- Kogarkoite
Kogarkoite [Na3F] is a mineral with a usually pale blue color. The specific gravity is about 2.67 and the hardness is 3.5. The crystall system is monoclinic. Kogarkoite is named after the Russian scientist Lia Nikolaevna Kogarko who discovered this mineral.-External links:*...
Na3(SO4)F – Russian scientist Lia Nikolaevna Kogarko
- Kolbeckite
Kolbeckite is a scandium phosphate mineral with formula: ScPO4·2H2O. It was discovered originally at Schmiedeberg, Saxony, Germany in 1926 and is named after Friedrich LW Kolbeck, a German mineralogist. Kolbeckite is usually found as small clusters of crystals...
ScPO4·2H2O – German mineralogist Friedrich LW Kolbeck
- Krennerite
Krennerite is an orthorhombic gold telluride mineral which can contain a relatively small amount of silver in the structure. The formula is AuTe2 varying to Te2...
AuTe2 varying to (Au0.8,Ag0.2)Te2 – Hungarian mineralogist Joseph Krenner (1839-1920)
- Kukharenkoite-(Ce)
Kukharenkoite- is a radioactive mineral, formula Ba3CeF3. It was identified from samples found in the Mont Saint-Hilare alkaline complex, Quebec, and the Kola peninsula, Russia. It was named for Russian mineralogist Alexander A...
Ba3CeF(CO3)3 – Russian mineralogist Alexander A. Kukharenko (1914-1993)
L
- Lonsdaleite
Lonsdaleite , also called Hexagonal diamond in reference to the crystal structure, is an allotrope of carbon with a hexagonal lattice. In nature, it forms from graphite present in meteorites upon their impact to Earth. The great heat and stress of the impact transforms the graphite into diamond,...
– British crystallographer Kathleen LonsdaleDame Kathleen Lonsdale, DBE was a crystallographer, who established the structure of benzene by X-ray diffraction methods in 1929, and hexachlorobenzene by Fourier spectral methods in 1931...
(1903-1971)
- Lorandite
Lorandite is a thallium arsenic sulfosalt with formula: TlAsS2. Though rare, it is the most common thallium bearing mineral. Lorandite occurs in low temperature hydrothermal associations. Occurs in gold and mercury ore deposits...
TlAsS2 – Hungarian physicist Loránd EötvösBaron Loránd von Eötvös , more commonly called Baron Roland von Eötvös in the English literature, was a Hungarian physicist...
(1848-1919)
M
- Maricite NaFePO4 – Yugoslavian mineralogist Luba Maric
- McKelveyite
Mckelveyite is a hydrated sodium, barium, yttrium, and uranium–containing carbonate, with the chemical formula 36. It was first described in 1965 from deposits in the Green River Formation, Sweetwater County, Wyoming, and is named after Vincent Ellis McKelvey , a former...
Ba3NaCa0.75U0.25Y(CO3)6•3(H2O) – American geologist Vincent E. McKelvey (1916-1985)
- Millerite
Millerite is a nickel sulfide mineral, NiS. It is brassy in colour and has an acicular habit, often forming radiating masses and furry aggregates...
NiS – British mineralogist William Hallowes MillerWilliam Hallowes Miller FRS , British mineralogist and crystallographer.- Life and work :Miller was born in 1801 at Velindre near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated in 1826 as fifth wrangler. He became a Fellow there in 1829...
(1801-1880)
- Moissanite
Moissanite originally referred to a rare mineral discovered by Henri Moissan having a chemical formula SiC and various crystalline polymorphs. Earlier this material had been synthesized in the laboratory and named silicon carbide.- Background :...
SiC (naturally occurring) – discoverer Henri MoissanFerdinand Frederick Henri Moissan was a French chemist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds.-Biography:...
(1852-1907)
- Morganite – American financier J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
(1837-1913)
- Murdochite
Murdochite is a mineral combining lead and copper oxides with formula PbCu6O8-x2x.It was first discovered in 1953 in the Mammoth-Saint Anthony Mine in Pinal County, Arizona. It was named for Joseph Murdoch , American mineralogist....
PbCu6O8-x(Cl,Br)2x – American mineralogist Joseph Murdock (1890-1973)
P
- Partheite
Partheite or parthéite is a calcium aluminium silicate found in rodingites, metasomatically altered rocks associated with the formation of serpentinite. Partheite and lawsonite are polymorphs. It has been described from rodingite dikes within an ophiolite sequence in Turkey and in veins within a...
Ca2Al4Si4O15(OH)2·4(H2O) – Swiss crystallographer Erwin Pathé (1928-2006)
- Penikisite BaMg2Al2(PO4)3(OH)3 – Canadian explorer Gunar Penikis (1936-1979)
- Perhamite Ca3Al7(SiO4)3(PO4)4(OH)3·16.5(H2O) – American geologist and pegmatite miner Frank C. Perham (1934-)
- Perovskite
A perovskite structure is any material with the same type of crystal structure as calcium titanium oxide , known as the perovskite structure, or
XIIA
2+VIIB
4+X
2-3 with the oxygen in a fcc...
CaTiO3 – Russian mineralogist, L. A. Perovski (1792-1856)
- Petzite
The mineral petzite, Ag3AuTe2, is a soft, steel-gray telluride mineral generally deposited by hydrothermal activity. It forms isometric crystals, and is usually associated with rare tellurium and gold minerals, often with silver, mercury, and copper.The name comes from W...
AgSilver is a chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
3AuGold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. It has been a highly sought-after precious metal for coinage, jewelry, and other arts since the beginning of recorded history. The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, in veins and in alluvial deposits. Gold is...
TeTellurium is a chemical element that has the symbol Te and atomic number 52. A brittle silver-white metalloid which looks similar to tin, tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur. Tellurium is primarily used in alloys and as a semiconductor.-Characteristics:Tellurium is extremely...
2 W. Petz
- Pezzottaite
Pezzottaite, marketed under the name raspberyl or raspberry beryl, is a newly identified mineral species, first recognized by the International Mineralogical Association in September 2003...
Cs(Be2Li)Al2Si6O18 Italian geologist and mineralogist Federico Pezzotta
- Phillipsite
Phillipsite is a mineral of the zeolite group; a hydrated potassium, calcium and aluminium silicate, approximating to 3Al6Si10O32·12H2O....
(Ca,Na2,K2)3Al6Si10O32·12H2O. or KCaAl3Si5O16·6H2O – English mineralogist and geologist William PhillipsWilliam Phillips FRS was an English mineralogist and geologist.Phillips was the son of James Phillips, printer and bookseller in London. He became interested in mineralogy and geology, and was one of the founders of the Geological Society of London...
(1775-1828)
- Prehnite
Prehnite is a phyllosilicate of calcium and aluminium with the formula: Ca2Al2. Limited Fe3+ substitutes for aluminium in the structure. Prehnite crystallizes in the orthorhombic crystal system. It is brittle with an uneven fracture and a vitreous to pearly lustre...
Ca2Al(AlSi3O10)(OH)2 – Dutch governor Colonel Hendrik Von Prehn
- Proustite
Proustite is a sulfosalt mineral consisting of silver sulfarsenide, Ag3AsS3, known also as light red silver or ruby silver ore, and an important source of the metal. It is closely allied to the corresponding sulfantimonide, pyrargyrite, from which it was distinguished by the...
Ag3AsArsenic is the chemical element that has the symbol As, atomic number 33 and atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250. Arsenic is a notoriously poisonous metalloid with many allotropic forms, including a yellow and several black and grey forms...
SSulfur or sulphur is the chemical element that has the atomic number 16. It is denoted with the symbol S. It is an abundant, multivalent non-metal. Sulfur, in its native form, is a yellow crystalline solid. In nature, it can be found as the pure element and as sulfide and sulfate minerals...
3 – French chemist Joseph Louis ProustJoseph Louis Proust was a French chemist.-Life:Joseph Louis Proust was born on September 26, 1754 in Angers, France. His father served as an apothecary in Angers. Joseph studied chemistry in his father’s shop and later came to Paris where he gained the appointment of apothecary in chief to the...
(1754-1826)
R
- Rambergite
Rambergite is a manganese sulfide mineral with formula MnS.It has been found in anoxic marine sediments, rich in organic matter of the Gotland Deep, Baltic Sea and also in skarn in the Garpenberg area, Dalarna, Sweden. It was named after the mineralogist, Hans Ramberg .It is closely related to...
MnS – mineralogist Hans Ramberg
- Riebeckite
Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of minerals, chemical formula Na25Si8O222. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, usually as long prismatic crystals showing a diamond-shaped cross section, but also in fibrous,...
Na2(Fe,Mg)5Si8O22(OH)2 – German explorer Emil RiebeckEmil Riebeck was a German explorer, mineralogist, ethnologist, and naturalist. He was born in Preusslitz to Carl Adolf Riebeck, an industrial magnate. He traveled to North Africa and Arabia several times, and in 1881 travelled with Georg Schweinfurth on an expedition to Socotra. He traveled...
(1853-1885)
- Rossmanite (LiAl2)Al6Si6O18(BO3)3(OH)4 – Caltech mineralogist George Rossman
S
- Samarskite
Samarskite or properly samarskite- is a radioactive mineral with the empirical formula:Other formulas show Ce rather than the generic REE and include essential titanium....
YYttrium is a chemical element with symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanoids and has historically been classified as a rare earth element. Yttrium is almost always found combined with the lanthanoids in rare earth minerals and is...
0.2REEAs defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanoids...
0.3Fe3+Iron is a metallic chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. Iron is a group 8 and period 4 element and is therefore classified as a transition metal. Iron and iron alloys are by far the most common metals and the most common ferromagnetic materials in everyday use...
0.3UUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Besides its 92 protons, a uranium nucleus can have between 141 and 146 neutrons. The most common uranium isotopes are U-238 and U-235 . A uranium atom has...
0.2NbNiobium , or columbium , is the chemical element with the symbol Nb and the atomic number 41...
0.8TaTantalum is a chemical element with the symbol Ta and atomic number 73. A rare, hard, blue-gray, lustrous transition metal, tantalum is highly corrosion resistant and occurs naturally in the mineral tantalite, always together with the chemically similar niobium...
0.2OAn oxide is a chemical compound containing at least one oxygen atom as well as at least one other element. Most of the Earth's crust consists of oxides. Oxides result when elements are oxidized by oxygen in air. Combustion of hydrocarbons affords the two principal oxides of carbon, carbon...
4 – Russian official Colonel Vasili Samarsky-BykhovetsVasili Evgrafovich Samarsky–Bykhovets was a Russian mining engineer and the chief of Russian Mining Engineering Corps between 1861 and 1870....
(1803-1870)
- Sanbornite
Sanbornite is a rare barium phyllosilicate mineral with formula BaSi2O5. Sanbornite is a colorless to white to pale green, platey orthorhombic mineral with Mohs hardness of 5 and a specific gravity of 3.74....
BaSi2O5 – American mineralogist Frank B. Sanborn (1862-1936)
- Satterlyite (Fe++,Mg)2(PO4)(OH) – Canadian geologist Jack Satterly (1906-)
- Schreibersite
Schreibersite is generally a rare iron nickel phosphide mineral, 3P, though common in iron-nickel meteorites. It is rarely reported from Earth . Another name used for the mineral is rhabdite. It forms tetragonal crystals with perfect 001 cleavage. Its color ranges from bronze to brass...
(Fe,Ni)3P – Austrian naturalist Carl Franz Anton Ritter von SchreibersCarl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers was an Austrian naturalist who was a native of Pressburg . He earned his medical doctorate from Vienna in 1798, but also studied botany, mineralogy and zoology at the university. For a brief period of time he assisted his uncle Joseph Ludwig von Schreibers...
(1775-1852)
- Sekaninaite
Sekaninaite is a mineral which has historically been known to occur only in one locality - in Dolni Bory in Moravia. Until 1968 it was mistaken for cordierite. It was named after a Czech mineralogist, Josef Sekanina...
((Fe+2,Mg)2Al4Si5O18) – Czech mineralogist Josef Sekanina (1901- )
- Sillimanite
Sillimanite also called Bucholzite is an alumino-silicate mineral with the chemical formula Al
2SiO
5. Sillimanite is named after the American chemist Benjamin Silliman ....
Al2SiO5 – American chemist Benjamin SillimanBenjamin Silliman was an American chemist, one of the first American professors of science , and the first to distill petroleum.-Early life:...
(1779-1864)
- Smithsonite
Smithsonite, or zinc spar, is zinc carbonate ZnCO
3, a mineral ore of zinc. Historically, smithsonite was identified with hemimorphite before it was realised that they were two distinct minerals. The two minerals are very similar in appearance and the term calamine has been used for both,...
ZnCO3 – British chemist and mineralogist, James SmithsonJames Smithson, F.R.S., M.A. was a British mineralogist and chemist noted for having left a bequest in his will to the United States of America, which was used to initially fund the Smithsonian Institution.-Biography:...
(1754-1829)
- Sodalite
Sodalite is a rich royal blue mineral widely enjoyed as an ornamental gemstone. Although massive sodalite samples are opaque, crystals are usually transparent to translucent...
(informally named Princess Blue) – Princess Patricia of ConnaughtPrincess Patricia of Connaught was a member of the British Royal Family, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria...
(1886-1974)
- Sperrylite
Sperrylite is a platinum arsenide mineral with formula: PtAs2 and is an opaque metallic tin white mineral which crystallizes in the isometric system with the pyrite group structure. It forms cubic, octahedral or pyritohedral crystals in addition to massive and reniform habits...
PtAs2 – American chemist Francis Louis Sperry
- Steacyite
Steacyite is a complex silicate mineral containing thorium and uranium; formula Kvariable2Si8O20. It forms small brown or yellow green crystals, often cruciform twinned crystals. It is radioactive...
KvariableCa.Na.Th.U.Si8O20 – Canadian mineralogist Harold Robert SteacyHarold Robert Steacy , mineralogist, was the curator of the Canadian National Mineral Collection at the Geological Survey of Canada in Ottawa. The mineral Steacyite is named for him....
(b. 1923)
- Stephanite
Stephanite is a silver antimony sulfide mineral with formula: Ag5SbS4 It is composed of 68.8% silver, and sometimes is of importance as an ore of this metal....
Ag5SbS4 – Archduke Stephan of Austria
- Stichtite
Stichtite is a mineral, a carbonate of chromium and magnesium; formula Mg6Cr2CO316·4H2O. Its colour ranges from pink through lilac to a rich purple colour. It is formed as an alteration product from chromium containing serpentine...
Mg6Cr2CO3(OH)16.4H2O – Australian mine manager Robert Carl StichtRobert Carl Sticht was a United States metallurgist.Sticht, the son of John C. Sticht, was born at Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A.. He studied at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for some years and then went to the royal school of mines, Clausthal, Germany, where he graduated with honours in 1880...
(1857–1922)
- Stilleite
Stilleite is a selinide mineral, zinc selenide with formula ZnSe. It has been found only as microscopic grey crystals associated with other selenides. It was originally discovered in Katanga Province, Zaire in 1956 and is named for the German geologist, Hans Stille ....
ZnSe – German geologist Hans StilleHans Wilhelm Stille was an influential German geologist working primarily on tectonics and the collation of tectonic events during the Phanerozoic....
(1876-1966)
- Stolzite
Stolzite is a mineral, a lead tungstate; with the formula PbWO4. It is similar to, and often associated with, Wulfenite which is the same chemical formula except that the tungsten is replaced by molybdenum. Lead tungstate crystals have the optical transparency of glass combined with...
PbWO4 – Czechoslovakian Joseph Alexi Stolz (1803-1896)
- Stromeyerite
Stromeyerite is a sulfide mineral of copper and silver, with the chemical formula AgCuS. It forms opaque blue grey to dark blue orthorhombic crystals....
AgCuS – German chemist, Friedrich Stromeyer (1776 - 1835)
- Sugilite
Sugilite is a relatively rare pink to purple cyclosilicate mineral with the complex chemical formula: KNa22Li3Si12O30. Sugilite crystallizes in the hexagonal system with prismatic crystals. The crystals are rarely found and the form is usually...
KNa2(Fe,Mn,Al)2Li3Si12O30 – Japanese petrologist Ken-ichi Sugi (1901-1948)
- Sylvite
Sylvite is potassium chloride in natural mineral form. It forms crystals in the isometric system very similar to normal rock salt, halite ....
KCl – Dutch chemist François Sylvius de le BoeFranciscus Sylvius , born Franz de le Boë, was a Dutch physician and scientist who was an early champion of Descartes', Van Helmont's and William Harvey's work and theories...
(1614-1672)
T
- Teallite
Teallite is a sulfide mineral of tin and lead with chemical formula: PbSnS2. It occurs in hydrothermal veins and is sometimes mined as an ore of tin. Teallite forms soft silvery grey mica-like plates and crystallizes in the orthorhombic system...
PbSnS2 – British geologist Jethro Justinian Harris Teall (1849-1924)
- Tennantite
Tennantite is a copper arsenic sulfosalt mineral. Its chemical formula is Cu
12As
4S
13. It is found in hydrothermal veins and contact metamorphic deposits. It is grey-black, steel-gray, iron-gray or black in color...
Cu12As4S13 – English chemist Smithson TennantSmithson Tennant FRS was an English chemist.Tennant is best known for his discovery of the elements iridium and osmium, which he found in the residues from the solution of platinum ores in 1803. He also contributed to the proof of the identity of diamond and charcoal. The mineral tennantite is...
(1761-1815)
- Tenorite
Tenorite is a copper oxide mineral with the simple formula CuO. Tenorite occurs in the weathered or oxidized zone associated with deeper primary copper sulfide orebodies. Tenorite commonly occurs with chrysocolla and the copper carbonates, azurite and malachite...
CuOCopper oxide can refer to*Copper oxide , a red powder;*Copper oxide , a black powder....
– Italian botanist Michele TenoreMichele Tenore was an Italian botanist active in Naples, Italy.Tenore studied at the University of Naples, receiving his medical degree in 1800...
(1780-1861)
- Thomasclarkite
Thomasclarkite- is a very rare mineral which was known as UK-93 until 1997, when it was renamed in honour of Dr. Thomas H. Clark , McGill University professor. The mineral is one of many rare earth element minerals from Mont Saint-Hilaire. Rare occurrence in an alkalic pegmatite dike in an...
Na0.8Ce0.2Y0.5REE0.7(HCO3)(OH)3•4(H2O) – Canadian geologist Thomas ClarkThomas Henry Clark, Ph.D., FRSC was a Canadian geologist who is considered to have been one of the nation's top scientists of the 20th century. He was a professor who authored over 100 scientific publications. After his death, a mineral was named in his honour.Clark was born in London, England...
(1893-1996)
- Thortveitite
Thortveitite is a mineral consisting of scandium yttrium silicate 2Si2O7. It is the primary source of scandium. Occurrence is in granitic pegmatites. It was named after Olaus Thortveit, Norwegian engineer...
(Sc,Y)2Si2O7 – Norwegian engineer Olaus Thortveit
- Tiemannite
Tiemannite is a mineral, mercury selenide, formula HgSe. It occurs in hydrothermal veins associated with other selenides, or other mercury minerals such as cinnabar, and often with calcite. Discovered in 1855 in Germany, it is named after C. W...
HgSe – CW Tiemann (1848-1899)
- Torbernite
Torbernite, whose name derives from the Swedish chemist Torbern Bergman , is a radioactive, green phosphate mineral, found in granites and other uranium-bearing deposits as a secondary mineral...
(2)2(4)2 – Swedish chemist Torbern BergmanTorbern Olof Bergman was a Swedish chemist and mineralogist noted for his 1775 Dissertation on Elective Attractions, containing the largest chemical affinity tables ever published...
(1735-1784)
U
- Ulexite
Ulexite is a mineral occurring in silky white rounded crystalline masses or in parallel fibers...
(NaSodium is a metallic element with a symbol Na and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal and is a member of the alkali metals within "group 1"...
CaCalcium is the chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. It has an atomic mass of 40.078 amu. Calcium is a soft grey alkaline earth metal, and is the fifth most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust...
BBoron is the chemical element with atomic number 5 and the chemical symbol B. Boron is a trivalent metalloid element which occurs abundantly in the evaporite ores borax and ulexite....
5OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
9•8H2OWater is an ubiquitous chemical substance that is composed of hydrogen and oxygen and is essential for all known forms of life.In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam. Water covers 71%...
) – German chemist G. L. Ulex
- Ullmannite
Ullmannite is a nickel antimony sulfide mineral with formula: NiSbS. Considerable substitution occurs with cobalt and iron in the nickel site along with bismuth and arsenic in the antimony site. A solid solution series exists with the high cobalt willyamite. It is steel-gray to tin white in color...
NiSbS – German chemist and mineralogist Johann Christoph Ullmann (1771-1821)
- Uvarovite
Uvarovite is a chromium bearing garnet group species with the formula: Ca
3Cr
23. It was discovered in 1832 by Germain Henri Hess who named it after Count Sergei Semenovitch Uvarov , a Russian statesman and amateur mineral collector.Uvarovite is one of the rarer of...
Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3 – Russian Count Sergei Semenovitch Uvarov (1765-1855)
V
- Valentinite
Valentinite is an antimony oxide mineral with formula Sb2O3. Valentinite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and typically forms as radiating clusters of euhedral crystals or as fibrous masses. It is colorless to white with occasional shades or tints of yellow and red. It...
Sb2O3 – German alchemist Basilius ValentinusBasilius Valentinus, also known under the Anglicized version of his name, Basil Valentine, was a 15th-century alchemist. He was the Canon of the Benedictine Priory of Sankt Peter in Erfurt, Germany. Even his name cannot be corroborated; during the 18th century it was suggested that he was Johann...
(c. 15th-century)
- Vaterite
Vaterite is a mineral, a polymorph of calcium carbonate. It was named after the German mineralogist Heinrich Vater. It is also known as mu-calcium carbonate and has a JCPDS number of 13-192. Vaterite, like aragonite, is a metastable phase of calcium carbonate at ambient conditions at the surface...
CaCO3 – German mineralogist Heinrich Vater
- Vivianite
Vivianite Fe32·8, hydrated iron phosphate, is a secondary mineral found in a number of geological environments...
Fe3(PO4)2·8(H2O) – English mineralogist J.G. Vivian
W
- Wardite
Wardite is a hydrous sodium aluminium phosphate hydroxide mineral with formula: NaAl324·2. Wardite is of interest for its rare crystallography. It crystallizes in the tetragonal trapezohedral class and is one of only a few minerals in that class...
NaAl3(PO4)2(OH)4•2(H2O) – American naturalist Henry Augustus WardHenry Augustus Ward was an American naturalist and geologist, born in Rochester, New York.After attending Williams College and the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, where he was an assistant of Louis Agassiz, he traveled in Egypt, Arabia, and Palestine, and studied at the Jardin des Plantes,...
(1834-1906)
- Weloganite
Weloganite is a rare carbonate mineral with formula: It occurs in an igneous carbonatite sill in Montreal, Canada in the Francon Quarry where it was first discovered. It also occurs in the Mont Saint-Hilaire district. It is usually white, lemon yellow, or amber in color, and can be translucent. It...
Na2(Sr,Ca)3Zr(CO3)6·3H2O – Canadian geologist Sir William Edmond LoganSir William Edmond Logan, FRS, was a noted 19th century Canadian geologist.Logan was born in Montreal, Quebec and studied at the University of Edinburgh. He started teaching himself geology in 1831, when he took over the running of a colliery in Swansea. He produced a geologic map of the south...
(1798-1875)
- Whewellite
Whewellite is a mineral, hydrated calcium oxalate, formula CaC
2O
4·H
2O. Because of its organic content it is thought to have an indirect biological origin and this is supported by it being found in coal and sedimentary nodules. However, it has also been found...
CaC2O4·H2O; English mineralogist William WhewellWilliam Whewell was an English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest, philosopher, theologian, and historian of science. His surname is .-Life and career:Whewell was born in Lancaster, England...
(1794-1866)
- Whitlockite
Whitlockite is a mineral, an unusual form of calcium phosphate. Its formula is Ca96PO3OH. It is a relatively rare mineral but is found in granitic pegmatites, phosphate rock deposits, guano caves and in chondrite meteorites...
Ca3(PO4)2 – American mineralogist Herbert Percy Whitlock (1868-1948)
- Willemite
Willemite is a zinc silicate mineral and a minor ore of zinc. It is highly fluorescent under shortwave ultraviolet light. It occurs in all different colors in daylight, in fibrous masses, solid brown masses , and apple green gemmy masses...
Zn2SiO4 – King William I of the NetherlandsWilliam I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....
(1772-1843)
- Witherite
Witherite is a barium carbonate mineral, BaCO3, in the aragonite group. Witherite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system and virtually always is twinned. The mineral is colorless, milky white, grey, pale yellow, green, to pale brown. The specific gravity is 4.3, which is high for a...
BaCO3 – English physician and naturalist William WitheringWilliam Withering was an English botanist, geologist, chemist, physician and the discoverer of digitalis.-Introduction:...
(1741-1799)
- Wollastonite
Wollastonite is a calcium inosilicate mineral that may contain small amounts of iron, magnesium, and manganese substituting for calcium. It is usually white. It forms when impure limestone or dolostone is subjected to high temperature and pressure sometimes in the presence of silica-bearing fluids...
CaSiO3 – English chemist and mineralogist William Hyde WollastonWilliam Hyde Wollaston FRS was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering two chemical elements and for developing a way to process platinum ore.-Biography:...
(1766-1828)
- Wulfenite
Wulfenite is a lead molybdate mineral with the formula PbMoO
4. It can be most often found as thin tabular crystals with a bright orange-red to yellow-orange color, sometimes brown, although the color can be highly variable. In its yellow form it is sometimes called "yellow lead ore"...
PbMoMolybdenum , is a Group 6 chemical element with the symbol Mo and atomic number 42. The free element, which is a silvery metal, has the sixth-highest melting point of any element. It readily forms hard, stable carbides, and for this reason it is often used in high-strength steel alloys...
OOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
4 – Austrian mineralogist Franz Xavier von Wulfen (1728-1805)
Z
- Zaccagnaite
Zaccagnaite is a mineral, with a formula Zn4Al2CO312·3H2O. It occurs as white hexagonal crystals associated with calcite in cavites in Carrera Marble of the Italian Alps and is thought to have formed by hydrothermal alteration of sphalerite in...
Zn4Al2CO3(OH)12.3H2O – Italian mineral collector Domenico Zaccagna
- Zaherite
Zaherite is a mineral, a complex sulfate of aluminium, formula Al12265·20H2O. Discovered in 1977 in the Salt range, Punjab, Pakistan by Mohamed Abduz Zaher of the Bangladesh Geological Survey after whom it is named...
Al12(OH)26(SO4)5.20H2O – Bangladeshi geologist Mohamed Abduz Zaher
- Zajacite
Zajacite or Zajacite- is a rare radioactive fluoride mineral with formula: NaF6. REE means rare earth elements mostly those belonging to the lanthanide series. It crystallizes in the trigonal - rhombohedral system and has a white vitreous appearance with a conchoidal fracture...
Na(REExCa1-x)(REEyCa1-y)F6 – Explorer Dr. I. S. Zajac
- Zakharovite
Zakharovite is a mineral, a silicate of sodium and manganese; formula Na4Mn5Si10O246·6H2O. It has a yellow colour with a pearly lustre. Discovered in 1982 in the Kola peninsula of Northern Russia, it is named after E.E...
Na4Mn5Si10O20(OH)6.6H2O – Director of the Moscow Institute of Geological Exploration EE Zakharov
- Zanazziite
Zanazziite is a mineral, a complex phosphate with the formula Ca24Be446·6H2O. Discovered in 1990 in Brazil, it is named after PF Zanazzi, Professor of Mineralogy, Perugia, Italy. Its color is pale to dark olive-green.-References:**...
Ca2(MgFe)(MgFeMnAl)4Be(OH)4(PO4)6.6H2O – Italian Professor PF Zanazzi
- Zaratite
Zaratite is a bright emerald green nickel carbonate mineral with formula Ni3CO34·4H2O. Zaratite crystallizes in the isometric crystal system as massive to mammillary encrustations and vein fillings. It has a specific gravity of 2.6 and a Mohs...
Ni3CO3(OH)4·4H2O – Spanish diplomat and dramatist Antonio Gil y ZárateAntonio Gil y Zárate was a Spanish dramatist and pedagogue whose work is associated with Romanticism. The mineral Zaratite was named after him....
(1793-1861)
- Zhanghengite
Zhanghengite is a mineral consisting of 80% copper and zinc, 10% iron with the balance made up of chromium and aluminium. Its color is golden yellow. It was discovered in 1986 during the analysis of the Bo Xian Meteorite and is named after Zhang Heng, an ancient Chinese astronomer. As well as...
– ancient Chinese astronomer Zhang HengZhang Heng was an astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan, and lived during the Eastern Han Dynasty of China. He was educated in the capital cities of Luoyang and Chang'an, and began his career as a minor...
(78-139)
- Zhemchuzhnikovite
Zhemchuzhnikovite is a mineral of organic origin; formula NaMgC2O4.8H2O. It forms smokey green crystals with a vitreous lustre and is found in Russian coal mines. It is named after Yury Zhemchuzhnikov , a Russian clay mineralogist.-References:**...
NaMg(FeAl)C2O4.8H2O – Russian clay mineralogist Yury Zhemchuzhnikov
- Ziesite
Ziesite is a mineral, copper vanadate: formula β-Cu2V2O7. It was discovered in 1980 as monoclinic crystals around fumaroles in the crater of the Izalco Volcano, El Salvador. It is named after Emmanuel G...
βCu2V2O7 – mineralogist Emmanuel G. Zies
- Zoisite
Zoisite is a calcium aluminium hydroxy sorosilicate belonging to the epidote group of minerals. Its chemical formula is Ca2Al3O...
Ca2(Al.OH)Al2(SiO4)3 – Slovene scientist Baron Sigmund Zois von EdelsteinSigmund Zois Freiherr von Edelstein, usually referred as Sigmund Zois was a Carniolan nobleman, natural scientist and patron of the arts...
(aka Žiga Zois) (1747-1819)
See also
- Geology
Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
- Mineralogy
Mineralogy is an Earth Science focused around the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their...
- Mineraloid
A mineraloid is a mineral-like substance that does not demonstrate crystallinity. Mineraloids possess chemical compositions that vary beyond the generally accepted ranges for specific minerals. For example, obsidian is an amorphous glass and not a crystal. Jet is derived from decaying wood under...
- Nonmineral
A nonmineral is a substance found in a natural environment that does not satisfy the definition of a mineral and is not even a mineraloid...
- List of chemical element name etymologies
- Lists of etymologies
- List of minerals (complete)
- List of minerals Short list emphasizing those with Wikipedia articles.
- Lists of people
- List of rock types
- Rock
In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
External links