{"id":9956,"date":"2019-07-01T16:05:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T23:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/BigJimIndustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=9956"},"modified":"2019-07-06T16:10:12","modified_gmt":"2019-07-06T23:10:12","slug":"new-mineral-goldmine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2019\/07\/01\/new-mineral-goldmine\/","title":{"rendered":"New Mineral Goldmine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

from WIRED<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEW ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES UNEARTH A TROVE OF UNUSUAL MINERALS<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

by SOPHIA CHEN<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nataliyamalikite was discovered in Kamchatka\u2019s Avacha Volcano, which emits sulfurous vapor that’s high in thallium. YURI SMITYUK\/GETTY IMAGES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

THE LANDSCAPE OF Kamchatka Peninsula steams with sulfurous vapor, its 29 active volcanoes forming a hazy backdrop for the region\u2019s herds of reindeer and rivers of salmon. One of the most geologically active places in the world, Kamchatka juts out from the eastern coast of Russia to resemble a larger version of Florida. A process almost like alchemy occurs here: Like a set of roiling cauldrons, Kamchatka\u2019s volcanoes mix unusual combinations of atomic elements to forge minerals that are unlike anything anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And in the past few years, researchers have discovered several new minerals on Kamchatka. \u201cThey pop up by accident,\u201d says Jo\u00ebl Brugger, a geologist at Monash University in Australia, who helped discover a new mineral on the peninsula called nataliyamalikite in 2017. \u201cYou just have to keep your eyes open.\u201d Researchers don\u2019t set out to make these discoveries, usually. Instead, they stumble upon new minerals during their studies of broader geologic processes that might, for example, cause rare metals to collect in unusually large concentrations in a specific volcano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These finds are part of a current boom in mineral discoveries across the planet. On average, geologists and mineral collectors have reported more than 100 new minerals per year since 2009, according to\u00a0a database<\/a> affiliated with the International Mineralogical Association. \u201cGiven the level of exploration over the last hundred years, you might think that we were running out of minerals to describe,\u201d says Brugger, who has participated in the discovery of 23 new minerals himself. \u201cBut the number of discoveries is increasing.\u201d To qualify as new minerals, these materials must be never-before-seen natural combinations of one or more elements in solid form, arranged in a repeating structure. Mined diamond and quartz are both minerals, whereas opal, which does not have a repeating crystal structure, and synthetic gemstones, which aren\u2019t natural, are not. Of the 5,477 known minerals, more than 1,000 were discovered in just the past 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ click to continue reading at WIRED<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from WIRED NEW ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES UNEARTH A TROVE OF UNUSUAL MINERALS by SOPHIA CHEN\u00a0 THE LANDSCAPE OF Kamchatka Peninsula steams with sulfurous vapor, its 29 active volcanoes forming a hazy backdrop for the region\u2019s herds of reindeer and rivers of salmon. One of the most geologically active places in the world, Kamchatka juts out from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weirdness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}