2024-01-19 14:49:00
Six small pieces of yellow color that can fit in a fistful of two cupped hands… This photograph was taken in the archives of the geological service of the Bavarian state office for environmental protection in the city of Hof in Upper Franconia.
As the dpa news agency reports, while working on creating a digital database of the local mining collection, department specialists discovered a small box containing samples of Humboldtin, a rare mineral first described in 1821. The total number of samples of this mineral found throughout the world is still very small – plus approximately exactly the same number as have now been discovered in Hof.
This resin-like mineral is found in brown coals and black shales and typically coats cracks in these rocks. Composed of iron, carbon and water and (Fe2 C2O4 * 2H2O).
The first sample was found by German mineralogist August Breithaupt in an abandoned brown coal mine in the Czech region of Most. The Peruvian scientist Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz, who then studied this mineral, decided to name the find in honor of the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.
How humboldtine was found in the Bavarian mineral collection
While digitizing archival documents, specialists from the Bavarian geological department discovered a 75-year-old letter that mentioned humboldtite, but the catalog of the local collection did not contain a record of the supply of the mineral. Therefore, scientists decided to check the entire repository – about 130 thousand samples. As a result, late last year they discovered a small box containing pieces of humboldtine and a completed label.
A laboratory study has now confirmed the composition of the mineral. The samples came to Hof from the brown coal mining area near Schwandorf in the Upper Palatinate. Scientists would like to study the site of the discovery of humboldtine, but in the 1980s, after the quarry was closed, it was filled with water to create an artificial lake.
Where can you see humboldtine?
As reported by the Bavarian department, mineralogy lovers will be able to see the unexpected find in October 2024 at the traditional exhibition in Munich – The Munich Show – Mineralientage München. With more than 1,100 exhibitors from sixty countries, this event is attended by more than 30 thousand people annually.
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#rare #mineral #Germany