UMaine Geologist Discovers Three New Minerals
Contact: Edward Grew, (207) 581-2169
View a photo here.
ORONO, Maine – On a geological expedition along the windswept slopes of the Larsemann Hills in Antarctica, UMaine geologist Edward Grew collected samples of the area’s unique rock formations that would later reveal three minerals previously unknown to science. The minerals, stornesite-(Y), chopinite and tassieite, are extremely rare and represented only by microscopic samples collected by Grew.
The unique mineralogy of the Larsemann Hills, located on the eastern shore of Prydz Bay in Princess Elizabeth Land, inspired Grew and his fellow researcher Chris Carson (now at Geoscience Australia) to make the four-month expedition in 2003 – 2004, which was funded by the National Science Foundation and made possible by the Australian Antarctic Division.
Grew and his colleagues identified and characterized the minerals using cutting edge technologies. Martin Yates used the powerful electron microprobe at UMaine to image the new minerals and measure their chemical compositions. Next, the minerals were sent to Olaf Medenbach at the Ruhr University (Bochum, Germany) and Thomas Armbruster at the University of Bern (Switzerland), who determined the new minerals’ optical properties and crystal structures, respectively. Then Grew submitted a complete dataset for each mineral to a special commission of the International Mineralogical Association, which formally approved them as valid new species. Grew has discovered a total of ten new minerals, and sees each as an opportunity to expand scientific understanding of the Earth and its complex geological processes.
“When new minerals are identified, some have little significance, and some end up being tremendously important,” said Grew. “They all tell us something about how rocks form. Ultimately, discoveries like these contribute to our understanding of the origin of rocks, plate tectonics and other processes, and give us valuable insights into temperature, pressure and other conditions within the Earth at different points of its history.”