New Mineral Named for Late Professor Charles Guidotti
Contact: Ed Grew, (207) 581-2169
ORONO — Charles V. Guidotti, professor in the UMaine Department of Earth Sciences from 1981 to his death in 2005, has been honored by having a new mineral, guidottiite, named after him.
The name was approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names of the International Mineralogical Association, which has officially recognized the discovery of the new mineral. The naming of new minerals follows a complex protocol and careful scientific review by the commission, which consists of 38 officers and members from 34 countries. It is a professional honor to have a mineral named for an individual.
Guidottiite is a new manganese mineral in the serpentine group discovered in the Kalahari manganese deposit in South Africa. Its grains are no larger than an eighth of an inch across, black with a glassy luster. It splits easily into the thin sheets. So far the mineral is only known to come from the one locality in South Africa, but now that it has been reported and characterized in the scientific literature, it is possible mineralogists will be able to find it in other locations in the world.
Serpentine-group minerals include micas, chlorites and clays, and were a special focus of Prof. Guidotti’s mineralogical career.
Stephen Guggenheim, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who did a Ph.D. thesis under Guidotti when he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin before coming to UMaine, suggested the new mineral be named after Guidotti, according to Ed Grew, research professor of geological sciences at UMaine.