|
Weeksite
Weeksite is a naturally occurring uranium silicate mineral with the chemical formula: K2(UO2)2Si6O15•4(H2O), potassium uranyl silicate. Weeksite has a Mohs hardness of 1–2. It was named for USGS mineralogist Alice Mary Dowse Weeks (1909–1988). Appearance Weeksite is visually similar to other uranium minerals such as carnotite and zippeite, both being encrustations that form on other rocks (usually sandstones or limestones). Occurrence Weeksite was first described in 1960 for an occurrence on Topaz Mountain, Thomas Range, Juab County, Utah. Weeksite occurs within small "opal" veins within rhyolite and agglomerates, and as encrustations in sandstones and limestones. It occurs associated with opal, chalcedony, calcite, gypsum, fluorite, uraninite, thorogummite, uranophane, boltwoodite, carnotite and margaritasite Margaritasite is a yellow, caesium-bearing mineral in the carnotite group. Its chemical formula is ( Cs, K, H3O)2( U O2)2 V2O8· H2O and its crystal s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alice Mary Dowse Weeks
Alice Mary Dowse Weeks (August 26, 1909 – August 29, 1988) was an American geologist. Weeksite is named after her. She identified uranophane in 1953 along with Mary E. Thompson. Weeks was the first to propose the concept of oxidation of ore deposits that contain uranium, vanadium, and other accessory metals. She founded the Geology Department at Temple University in Philadelphia, and was a strong proponent of women in geology. Early life and family Alice Mary Dowse Weeks and her twin sister Eunice were born August 26, 1909 in Sherborn Massachusetts. Alice's mother Jessie Parker Dowse was raised in Uxbridge, Massachusetts and attended Tufts University. Jessie worked as a teacher until marrying Arthur Dowse, who worked as a banker among other occupations. Alice's mother was an advocate for her children's education as well as women's rights and encouraged them to learn at a young age. Alice married Dr. Albert Weeks, a long-term friend and companion, in May 1950. Albert, a pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silicate Mineral
Silicate minerals are rock-forming minerals made up of silicate groups. They are the largest and most important class of minerals and make up approximately 90 percent of Earth's crust. In mineralogy, silica (silicon dioxide, ) is usually considered a silicate mineral. Silica is found in nature as the mineral quartz, and its polymorphism (materials science), polymorphs. On Earth, a wide variety of silicate minerals occur in an even wider range of combinations as a result of the processes that have been forming and re-working the crust for billions of years. These processes include partial melting, crystallization, fractionation, metamorphism, weathering, and diagenesis. Living organisms also contribute to this carbonate–silicate cycle, geologic cycle. For example, a type of plankton known as diatoms construct their exoskeletons ("frustules") from silica extracted from seawater. The frustules of dead diatoms are a major constituent of deep ocean sediment, and of diatomaceous e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Juab County, Utah
Juab County ( ) is a county in western Utah, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 10,246. Its county seat and largest city is Nephi. Juab County is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Salt Lake City–Provo–Orem, Utah Combined Statistical Area. History The area of future Juab County was inhabited by nomadic indigenous peoples before the Mormon settlement of Utah beginning in 1847. Soon after, Mormons and others traveling through the area had established a road to California, leading SSW from Great Salt Lake City. It passed Salt Creek, flowing westward through a slough in the Wasatch Mountains. The area around this creek was often used as a stopping or camping spot by travelers, and by 1851 Mormon settlers had begun a settlement in the area. When the Utah Territory legislature created a county (by partitioning territory from Utah County) to oversee the growth and organization of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaritasite
Margaritasite is a yellow, caesium-bearing mineral in the carnotite group. Its chemical formula is ( Cs, K, H3O)2( U O2)2 V2O8· H2O and its crystal system is monoclinic (space group ''P21/a''). Name and discovery It was first described in 1982 from the Margaritas uranium deposit in the Peña Blanca district of the municipality of Aldama, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. See also * List of minerals This is a list of minerals for which there are articles on Wikipedia. Minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various ''species''. Within a m ... References Vanadate minerals Caesium minerals Potassium minerals Uranium(VI) minerals Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 14 Minerals described in 1982 {{oxide-mineral-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boltwoodite
Boltwoodite is a hydrated potassium uranyl silicate mineral with formula HK(UO2)(SiO4)·1.5(H2O). It is formed from the oxidation and alteration of primary uranium ores. It takes the form of a crust on some sandstones that bear uranium. These crusts tend to be yellowish with a silky or vitreous luster. Discovery and occurrence It was first described in 1956 for an occurrence in Pick's Delta Mine, Delta, San Rafael District (San Rafael Swell), Emery County, Utah, US. It is named after Bertram Boltwood (1870–1927) an American pioneer of radiochemistry. Boltwoodite occurs as secondary silicate alteration crusts surrounding uraninite and as fracture fillings. It is found in pegmatites and sandstone uranium deposits of the Colorado Plateau-type. It occurs associated with uraninite, becquerelite, fourmarierite, phosphouranylite, gypsum and fluorite Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystalliz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uranophane
Uranophane ( Ca( U O2)2( SiO3O H)2·5 H2O), also known as uranotile, is a rare calcium uranium silicate hydrate mineral that forms from the oxidation of other uranium-bearing minerals. It has a yellow color and is radioactive. Alice Mary Weeks, and Mary E. Thompson of the United States Geological Survey, identified uranophane in 1953. Classic samples have been produced at Madawaska Mine near Bancroft, Ontario Bancroft () is a town located on the York River in Hastings County in the Canadian province of Ontario. It was first settled in the 1850s by United Empire Loyalists and Irish immigrants. From the mid-1950s to about 1982, mining was the primary .... References Calcium minerals Uranium(VI) minerals Nesosilicates Monoclinic minerals Minerals in space group 4 Luminescent minerals {{silicate-mineral-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uraninite
Uraninite, formerly pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the uranium causes the mineral to contain oxides of lead and trace amounts of helium. It may also contain thorium and rare-earth elements. Overview Uraninite used to be known as pitchblende (from '' pitch'', because of its black color, and ''blende'', from ''blenden'' meaning "to deceive", a term used by German miners to denote minerals whose density suggested metal content, but whose exploitation, at the time they were named, was either unknown or not economically feasible). The mineral has been known at least since the 15th century from silver mines in the Ore Mountains, on the German/Czech border. The type locality is the historic mining and spa town known as Joachimsthal, the modern day Jáchymov, on the Czech side of the mountains, where F. E. Brückma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fluorite
Fluorite (also called fluorspar) is the mineral form of calcium fluoride, CaF2. It belongs to the halide minerals. It crystallizes in isometric cubic habit, although octahedral and more complex isometric forms are not uncommon. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on scratch hardness comparison, defines value 4 as fluorite. Pure fluorite is colourless and transparent, both in visible and ultraviolet light, but impurities usually make it a colorful mineral and the stone has ornamental and lapidary uses. Industrially, fluorite is used as a flux for smelting, and in the production of certain glasses and enamels. The purest grades of fluorite are a source of fluoride for hydrofluoric acid manufacture, which is the intermediate source of most fluorine-containing fine chemicals. Optically clear transparent fluorite lenses have low dispersion, so lenses made from it exhibit less chromatic aberration, making them valuable in microscopes and telescopes. Fluorite optics are also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gypsum
Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. Alabaster, a fine-grained white or lightly tinted variety of gypsum, has been used for sculpture by many cultures including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient Rome, the Byzantine Empire, and the Nottingham alabasters of Medieval England. Gypsum also crystallizes as translucent crystals of selenite. It forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite. The Mohs scale of mineral hardness defines gypsum as hardness value 2 based on scratch hardness comparison. Etymology and history The word ''gypsum'' is derived from the Greek word (), "plaster". Because the quarries of the Montmartre district of Paris have long furnished burnt gypsum (calcined gypsum) used for various purposes, this dehydrated gypsum became known ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcite
Calcite is a Carbonate minerals, carbonate mineral and the most stable Polymorphism (materials science), polymorph of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). It is a very common mineral, particularly as a component of limestone. Calcite defines hardness 3 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, based on Scratch hardness, scratch hardness comparison. Large calcite crystals are used in optical equipment, and limestone composed mostly of calcite has numerous uses. Other polymorphs of calcium carbonate are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Aragonite will change to calcite over timescales of days or less at temperatures exceeding 300 °C, and vaterite is even less stable. Etymology Calcite is derived from the German ''Calcit'', a term from the 19th century that came from the Latin word for Lime (material), lime, ''calx'' (genitive calcis) with the suffix "-ite" used to name minerals. It is thus etymologically related to chalk. When applied by archaeology, archaeologists and stone trade pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chalcedony
Chalcedony ( , or ) is a cryptocrystalline form of silica, composed of very fine intergrowths of quartz and moganite. These are both silica minerals, but they differ in that quartz has a trigonal crystal structure, while moganite is monoclinic. Chalcedony's standard chemical structure (based on the chemical structure of quartz) is SiO2 (silicon dioxide). Chalcedony has a waxy luster, and may be semitransparent or translucent. It can assume a wide range of colors, but those most commonly seen are white to gray, grayish-blue or a shade of brown ranging from pale to nearly black. The color of chalcedony sold commercially is often enhanced by dyeing or heating. The name ''chalcedony'' comes from the Latin ''chalcedonius'' (alternatively spelled ''calchedonius'') and is probably derived from the town of Chalcedon in Turkey. The name appears in Pliny the Elder's ''Naturalis Historia'' as a term for a translucent kind of jaspis. Another reference to a gem by the name of ''khalkedon'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
