Ewingite is a mineral discovered by Jakub Plášil of the Institute of Physics at the

Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic The Czech Academy of Sciences (abbr. CAS, cs, Akademie věd České republiky, abbr. AV ČR) was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its tradition goes back ...

in the Plavno mine,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. Travis Olds of the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

and colleagues described ewingite, which is the most structurally complex known mineral on Earth. Ewingite is named in honor of Rodney C. Ewing, Professor of Geological Sciences at Stanford University, USA. The mineral is rare, due to its very narrow pH and compositional range required for formation, which are only known to occur in the Plavno mine. Ewingite forms through

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

occurring in the humid environment of the mine. The mineral is chemically similar to rabbittite, swartzite, and

albrechtschraufite Albrechtschraufite (International Mineralogical Association, IMA List of mineral symbols, symbol: Asf) is a very rare complex hydrated calcium and magnesium-bearing uranyl fluoride carbonate mineral with formula Ca4Mg(UO2)2(CO3)6F2·17H2O. Its molar ...

. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

of ewingite has been placed in the mineralogy collections at the

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...

Localities

: Plavno mine, Jáchymov District, Krušné Hory Mountains,

Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; german: Karlsbad, formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. It lies on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. ...

Region,

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

References

Calcium minerals Uranium(VI) minerals Carbonate minerals Uranyl compounds Tetragonal minerals {{carbonate-mineral-stub