Geological Society of America

234 D14. Recent Advances in Mineralogy/Crystallography

Wednesday, 25 September 2019
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 125AB, North Building

EWINGITE AND PADDLEWHEELITE, TWO NEW URANYL CARBONATE MINERALS WITH COMPLEX STRUCTURES

Paper number: 234-5
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 9:15 AM

Authors

Travis A. Olds Presenting Author
Washington State University, Pullman, WA
Jakub Plášil
Institute of Physics, ASCR, v.v.i., Prague 8
Anthony R. Kampf
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA
Antonio Simonetti
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Luke R. Sadergaski
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Yu-Sheng Chen
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Peter C. Burns
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
Fabrice Dal Bo
University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN

Abstract

Over the past decade, an average of well over 100 new minerals per year have been discovered and approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association. Exploration of abandoned mines and re-investigation of samples from classic localities have allowed mineralogists to discover more new minerals in the past decade than any before. Although crystal-chemical studies of synthetic uranium materials have increased exponentially over the same period, recently discovered U minerals that possess remarkably complex atomic arrangements and compositions provide us with a more thorough understanding of the crystal-chemical drivers of uranyl carbonate mineral formation and aqueous behavior of U-CO₃ systems. Nature is our most skilled experimentalist if you know where to look, and new mineral discoveries like ewingite and paddlewheelite can promote technological advancement and foster better nuclear waste stewardship. Looking forward, predictive mineralogy methods and big-data analysis are ever important approaches to understanding human-mineral interactions in our Anthropocene era.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019AM-336539

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