Ytterby () is a village on the Swedish island of

Resarö Resarö is an island in the Stockholm archipelago and a locality in Vaxholm Municipality, Stockholm County, Sweden. It had 2,946 inhabitants in 2010. Resarö includes the hamlet of Ytterby, famous for the discovery of several rare-earth elements i ...

, in

Vaxholm Municipality Vaxholm Municipality (''Vaxholms kommun'' or ''Vaxholms stad'') is a municipality within Stockholm archipelago in Stockholm County in east central Sweden. The municipal slogan is "Vaxholm – the capital of the archipelago", due to its centr ...

in the Stockholm archipelago. Today the residential area is dominated by suburban homes. The name of the village translates to "outer village". Ytterby is perhaps most famous for being the single richest source of

elemental An elemental is a mythic being that is described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance, and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. According to Paracelsus and his subsequent fo ...

discoveries in the world; the chemical elements

yttrium Yttrium is a chemical element with the symbol Y and atomic number 39. It is a silvery-metallic transition metal chemically similar to the lanthanides and has often been classified as a "rare-earth element". Yttrium is almost always found in com ...

(Y),

terbium Terbium is a chemical element with the symbol Tb and atomic number 65. It is a silvery-white, rare earth metal that is malleable, and ductile. The ninth member of the lanthanide series, terbium is a fairly electropositive metal that reacts with wa ...

(Tb),

erbium Erbium is a chemical element with the symbol Er and atomic number 68. A silvery-white solid metal when artificially isolated, natural erbium is always found in chemical combination with other elements. It is a lanthanide, a rare-earth element ...

(Er), and

ytterbium Ytterbium is a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number 70. It is a metal, the fourteenth and penultimate element in the lanthanide series, which is the basis of the relative stability of its +2 oxidation state. However, like the othe ...

(Yb) are all named after Ytterby, while four more elements were first discovered there.

Mine

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

was mined in the area beginning in the 1600s for the ironworks in

Uppland Uppland () is a historical province or ' on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic Sea. On the small uninhab ...

Feldspar Feldspars are a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagioclase'' (sodium-calcium) feldsp ...

was mined for local porcelain manufacture, such as Gustavsberg, and the porcelain trade with

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

and

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. The mine is likely the first feldspar mine in Sweden, starting in 1790. Feldspar mining was likely sporadic and based on manufacture demand. This demand took off in the 1860s, leading to deeper mining efforts at Ytterby. The mine became one of the most productive quartz and feldspar mines in the country. Feldspar and quartz mining continued until 1933, when the mine was shut down. With 177 years of feldspar mining, it was the longest-mined feldspar mine in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. Towards the end of the 1940s, the Swedish state, through the REF (''Riksnämnden för ekonomisk försvarsberedskap'') became interested in the possible usage of the mine. In 1953, the mine was renovated and used for the storage of jet fuel -

MC 77 JP-4, or JP4 (for "Jet Propellant") was a jet fuel, specified in 1951 by the U.S. government (MIL-DTL-5624). Its NATO code is F-40. It is also known as avtag. Usage JP-4 was a 50-50 kerosene-gasoline blend. It had a lower flash point than JP-1, ...

. The storage method led to contamination of the jet fuel, leading to problems in jet engines that used the fuel. The storage of jet fuel ended in 1978. It was subsequently used to store diesel. In 1995, the mine was completely emptied, and in the following years the area began rehabilitation. The mined quartz and feldspar are part of a

pegmatite A pegmatite is an igneous rock showing a very coarse texture, with large interlocking crystals usually greater in size than and sometimes greater than . Most pegmatites are composed of quartz, feldspar, and mica, having a similar silicic com ...

dyke that has a NNE-SSW orientation and a dip of 60° to the west. The pegmatite dyke include sections of

aplite Aplite () is an intrusive igneous rock in which the mineral composition is the same as granite, but in which the grains are much finer, under 1 mm across. Quartz and feldspar are the dominant minerals. The term ''aplite'' or ''aplitic'' ...

and

graphic granite Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...

. The sorrounding host rock is "gabbro-like greenstone".

Chemical discoveries

The mine's elemental history began in 1787, when Lieutenant

Carl Axel Arrhenius Carl Axel Arrhenius (29 March 1757 – 20 November 1824) was an officer in the Swedish army as well as an amateur geologist and chemist. He is best known for his discovery of the mineral ytterbite (later called gadolinite) in 1787. The disc ...

found an unidentified black mineral. He had previously explored the area for a potential fortification. His hobby interest in chemistry led him to notice the unusually heavy black rock, which he and his friend Bengt Geijer examined with Sven Rinman. It was not until 1794 that Finnish chemist

Johan Gadolin Johan Gadolin (5 June 176015 August 1852) was a Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist. Gadolin discovered a " new earth" containing the first rare-earth compound yttrium, which was later determined to be a chemical element. He is also con ...

fully analysed the mineral and found that 38% of its composition was a new, unidentified earth element. Swedish chemist

Anders Gustaf Ekeberg Anders Gustaf Ekeberg ( Stockholm, Sweden, 16 January 1767 – Uppsala, Sweden, 11 February 1813) was a Swedish analytical chemist who discovered tantalum in 1802. - subscription required He was notably deaf. Education Anders Gustav Ekeberg ...

confirmed the discovery the following year and named it ''yttria'', with the mineral named ''gadolinite''. Many rare earth elements were discovered in the mineral

gadolinite Gadolinite, sometimes known as ytterbite, is a silicate mineral consisting principally of the silicates of cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, yttrium, beryllium, and iron with the formula . It is called gadolinite-(Ce) or gadolinite-(Y), depending on ...

, which eventually proved to be the source of seven new elements that were named after the mineral ore and the area. These elements include

(Y),

(Er),

(Tb), and

(Yb) and were first described in 1794, 1843, 1843, and 1878, respectively. In 1989 the

ASM International ASM International is a Dutch headquartered multinational corporation that specializes in design, manufacturing, sales and service of semiconductor wafer processing equipment for the fabrication of semiconductor devices. ASM's products are use ...

society installed a plaque at the former entrance to the mine, commemorating the mine as a historical landmark. In addition,

scandium Scandium is a chemical element with the symbol Sc and atomic number 21. It is a silvery-white metallic d-block element. Historically, it has been classified as a rare-earth element, together with yttrium and the Lanthanides. It was discovered in ...

(Sc) and three other

lanthanides The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises the 15 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–71, from lanthanum through lutetium. These elements, along with the chemically similar elements scandium and yttr ...

—

holmium Holmium is a chemical element with the symbol Ho and atomic number 67. It is a rare-earth element and the eleventh member of the lanthanide series. It is a relatively soft, silvery, fairly corrosion-resistant and malleable metal. Like a lot of othe ...

(Ho, named after

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

thulium Thulium is a chemical element with the symbol Tm and atomic number 69. It is the thirteenth and third-last element in the lanthanide series. Like the other lanthanides, the most common oxidation state is +3, seen in its oxide, halides and other c ...

(Tm, named after

Thule Thule ( grc-gre, Θούλη, Thoúlē; la, Thūlē) is the most northerly location mentioned in ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek and Latin literature, Roman literature and cartography. Modern interpretations have included Orkney, Shet ...

, a mythic analogue of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

), and

gadolinium Gadolinium is a chemical element with the symbol Gd and atomic number 64. Gadolinium is a silvery-white metal when oxidation is removed. It is only slightly malleable and is a ductile rare-earth element. Gadolinium reacts with atmospheric oxygen ...

(Gd, after the chemist Johan Gadolin)—can trace their discovery to the same quarry. The

European Chemical Society The European Chemical Society (EuChemS) is a European non-profit organisation which promotes collaboration between non-profit scientific and technical societies in the field of chemistry.Dr. John V. Holder, ''The European Association for Chemica ...

gave the Ytterby mine and the industrial complex of ABEA, Crete, Greece its Historical Landmarks Awards for 2018.

References

External links

Blog entry on YtterbyYouTube tour of the mine siteLocation on Google MapsGoogle Earth view of YtterbyWeb log — What do these elements have in common?
{{authority control Metropolitan Stockholm Populated places in Vaxholm Municipality Science and technology in Sweden Naming of chemical elements Feldspar mines in Sweden Quartz mines in Sweden

Mine

Chemical discoveries

See also

References

External links