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Charoite
Charoite ( ) is a rare silicate mineral with the chemical composition , first described in 1978. It is named after the Chara River, despite its being away from the discovery place.Ian Frazier, ''Travels in Siberia'', Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York (NY), 2010, ISBN 978-0-374-27872-4page 394/ref> When it was discovered, it was thought to be a fake, dyed purple to give it its striking appearance. Properties Charoite is translucent lavender to purple in color with a pearly luster. Charoite is strictly massive in nature, and fractures are conchoidal. It has an unusual swirling, fibrous appearance, sometimes chatoyant, and that, along with its intense color, can lead many to believe at first that it is synthetic or enhanced artificially. Though reportedly discovered in the 1940s, it was not known to most of the world until its description in 1978. It is said to be opaque and unattractive when found in the field; a fact that may have contributed to its late recognition. Charoi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murun Massif
Murun () is a mountain in the Olyokma-Chara Plateau, at the border of Irkutsk Oblast and Yakutia, Russian Federation. Geography A high summit is the highest point of the Murun Massif in the Olyokma-Chara Plateau, part of the South Siberian mountain system. The massif is about across and rises in the central/southern part of the plateau, above the right bank of the Chara, west of the valley of the Tokko, at the southwestern end of the Sakha Republic, bordering with Irkutsk Oblast, near the tripoint with Zabaykalsky Krai. The mountain is near Torgo, an abandoned settlement in Olyokminsky District.Google Earth The Murun peak is marked as a summit in the O-50 sheet of the Soviet Topographic Map. This same mountain, however, is a peak in the D-7 sheet of the Defense Mapping Agency Navigation charts. The Irkutsk Oblast-Yakutia border runs across the middle of the Murun Massif and the peak rises on the western, or Irkutsk Oblast side. Geology The massif is part of the Aldan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chara River
The Chara (; , ''Çaara'') is a left tributary of the Olyokma in Eastern Siberia, Russia. It is long, and has a drainage basin of . Together with the Olyokma, river Chara gives its name to the Olyokma-Chara Plateau (Олёкмо-Чарское плоскогорье), located to the east of its eastern bank. History The region is famous for a peculiar mountain where charoite has been mined for decades. This intensely purple mineral, named after the river, is only found here and was discovered in the 1940s when a rail tunnel was constructed. Part of the Russian governmental debt was paid in charoite and slabs of this now expensive ornamental material were stored in basements of houses of the Hungarian capital city, Budapest. Course The Chara begins as an outflow of Bolshoye Leprindo lake in the Kodar Mountains, Stanovoy Highlands in northern Zabaykalsky Krai. It flows through the Chara Basin between the Kodar and Kalar Mountains, passing the ''Chara Sands'', a area of activ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aldan Shield
Aldan Shield () is a shield in Siberia. It is an exposed basement of the Siberian Craton. Together with the Anabar Shield further to the northwest, the Aldan Shield is one of the main features of the craton. The Aldan Shield geological region coincides geographically with parts of the Aldan Highlands and Olyokma-Chara Plateau, located at the southern end of the Sakha Republic and the eastern end of Irkutsk Oblast.Google Earth The exposed crust parts of the shield date back to the Archean and reflect the first phases of accretion of the crust. They only emerge in a few areas, the eastern and northern sectors of the shield being largely covered by sediments accumulated between the end of the Precambrian and the Cambrian, while in the western and southern regions they have undergone processes of tectonic rejuvenation that have brought about the formation of new structures above and below. On the Aldan Shield there is the only charoite deposit known in the world - the Sirenevyi Ka ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinaksite
Tinaksite (chemical formula ) is a mineral found in northern Russia. Tinaksite can be grayish-white, yellowish, orange, or brown, and it is often found in charoite. Its name is derived from its composition: titanium (Ti), sodium (Na) potassium (K) and silicon (Si). The International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. ... first recognized tinaksite as a mineral in 1965. References External links *{{cite journal , url = http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/zk/vol189/ZK189_195.pdf, title = The crystal structure of tokkoite and its relation to the structure of tinaksite , first1 = I. V. , last1 = Rozhdestvenskaya , first2 = L. V. , last2= Nikishova , first3 = Y. D. , last3 = Lazebnik , first4 = K. A. , last4 = Lazebnik , journal = Ze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syenite
Syenite is a coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock with a general composition similar to that of granite, but deficient in quartz, which, if present at all, occurs in relatively small concentrations (< 5%). It is considered a granitoid. Some syenites contain larger proportions of components and smaller amounts of material than most granites; those are classed as being of . The |
Potassium Minerals
Potassium is a chemical element; it has symbol K (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number19. It is a silvery white metal that is soft enough to easily cut with a knife. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmospheric oxygen to form flaky white potassium peroxide in only seconds of exposure. It was first isolated from potash, the ashes of plants, from which its name derives. In the periodic table, potassium is one of the alkali metals, all of which have a single valence electron in the outer electron shell, which is easily removed to create an ion with a positive charge (which combines with anions to form salts). In nature, potassium occurs only in ionic salts. Elemental potassium reacts vigorously with water, generating sufficient heat to ignite hydrogen emitted in the reaction, and burning with a lilac- colored flame. It is found dissolved in seawater (which is 0.04% potassium by weight), and occurs in many minerals such as orthoclase, a common constituent of granites and ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sodium Minerals
Sodium is a chemical element; it has symbol Na (from Neo-Latin ) and atomic number 11. It is a soft, silvery-white, highly reactive metal. Sodium is an alkali metal, being in group 1 of the periodic table. Its only stable isotope is 23Na. The free metal does not occur in nature and must be prepared from compounds. Sodium is the sixth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and exists in numerous minerals such as feldspars, sodalite, and halite (NaCl). Many salts of sodium are highly water-soluble: sodium ions have been leached by the action of water from the Earth's minerals over eons, and thus sodium and chlorine are the most common dissolved elements by weight in the oceans. Sodium was first isolated by Humphry Davy in 1807 by the electrolysis of sodium hydroxide. Among many other useful sodium compounds, sodium hydroxide ( lye) is used in soap manufacture, and sodium chloride ( edible salt) is a de-icing agent and a nutrient for animals including hum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calcium Minerals
Calcium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to its heavier homologues strontium and barium. It is the fifth most abundant element in Earth's crust, and the third most abundant metal, after iron and aluminium. The most common calcium compound on Earth is calcium carbonate, found in limestone and the fossils of early sea life; gypsum, anhydrite, fluorite, and apatite are also sources of calcium. The name comes from Latin ''calx'' " lime", which was obtained from heating limestone. Some calcium compounds were known to the ancients, though their chemistry was unknown until the seventeenth century. Pure calcium was isolated in 1808 via electrolysis of its oxide by Humphry Davy, who named the element. Calcium compounds are widely used in many industries: in foods and pharmaceuticals for calci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barium
Barium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ba and atomic number 56. It is the fifth element in group 2 and is a soft, silvery alkaline earth metal. Because of its high chemical reactivity, barium is never found in nature as a free element. The most common minerals of barium are barite ( barium sulfate, BaSO4) and witherite ( barium carbonate, BaCO3). The name ''barium'' originates from the alchemical derivative "baryta", from Greek (), meaning 'heavy'. ''Baric'' is the adjectival form of barium. Barium was identified as a new element in 1772, but not reduced to a metal until 1808 with the advent of electrolysis. Barium has few industrial applications. Historically, it was used as a getter for vacuum tubes and in oxide form as the emissive coating on indirectly heated cathodes. It is a component of YBCO (high-temperature superconductors) and electroceramics, and is added to steel and cast iron to reduce the size of carbon grains within the microstructure. Barium compounds ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strontium
Strontium is a chemical element; it has symbol Sr and atomic number 38. An alkaline earth metal, it is a soft silver-white yellowish metallic element that is highly chemically reactive. The metal forms a dark oxide layer when it is exposed to air. Strontium has physical and chemical properties similar to those of its two vertical neighbors in the periodic table, calcium and barium. It occurs naturally mainly in the minerals celestine and strontianite, and is mostly mined from these. Both strontium and strontianite are named after Strontian, a village in Scotland near which the mineral was discovered in 1790 by Adair Crawford and William Cruickshank; it was identified as a new element the next year from its crimson-red flame test color. Strontium was first isolated as a metal in 1808 by Humphry Davy using the then newly discovered process of electrolysis. During the 19th century, strontium was mostly used in the production of sugar from sugar beets (see strontian proces ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manganese
Manganese is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese was first isolated in the 1770s. It is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels. It improves strength, workability, and resistance to wear. Manganese oxide is used as an oxidising agent, as a rubber additive, and in glass making, fertilisers, and ceramics. Manganese sulfate can be used as a fungicide. Manganese is also an essential human dietary element, important in macronutrient metabolism, bone formation, and free radical defense systems. It is a critical component in dozens of proteins and enzymes. It is found mostly in the bones, but also the liver, kidneys, and brain. In the human brain, the manganese is bound to manganese metalloproteins, most notably glutamine synthetase in astrocytes. Manganese is commonly found in labo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron
Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, being mainly deposited by meteorites in its metallic state. Extracting usable metal from iron ores requires kilns or furnaces capable of reaching , about 500 °C (900 °F) higher than that required to smelt copper. Humans started to master that process in Eurasia during the 2nd millennium BC and the use of iron tools and weapons began to displace copper alloys – in some regions, only around 1200 BC. That event is considered the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In the modern world, iron alloys, such as steel, stainless steel, cast iron and special steels, are by far the most common industrial metals, due to their mechan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
