News on May 15 - June 15, 2004

June 2, 2004. Alexander P. Khomyakov made a very interesting report “Deposits-giants as products of geocatalysis and minerals – indicators of their genesis”.
In hot discussion took participation all Club members, including Boris E. Borutskii, Igor A. Zotov, Liya N. Kogarko, Svet M. Kravchenko, Ernst M. Spiridonov. The specimens of so-called catalygenic minerals (the term proposed by A.P. Khomyakov) from author’s and Museum collections were demonstrated.
 Alexander P. Khomyakov presented unique specimen of kogarkoite, largest segregation (nearly 3 cm in size) of this rare mineral in the rock (agpaitic pegmatite) from Mt. Alluaiv, to Dr. Margarita I. Novgorodova, director of the Fersman Mineralogical Museum.
 Academician Liya N. Kogarko, in whose honor the mineral was named, told the interesting story about its discovery. Vasilii I. Gerasimovskii (1907-1979), famous geochemist, already in 1970’s has paid attention to wide prevalence of villiaumite (NaF) in the rocks and pegmatites of Lovozero massif and advised his post-graduate student Liya Kogarko to search halite (NaCl) in them that would be interesting finding from the point of view of deposit genesis. The girl checked all suspected specimens by… the tongue licking the surface: known salt taste would find out halite. By this method she once found the mineral with unusual taste. She considered this mineral as known schairerite, i.e. its chlorine-free variety. However later in Colorado (Chaffee Co.) American mineralogists (Pabst & Sharp, 1973) found the mineral similar to that by chemical composition and properties and proposed to consider it as a new species, and named it in honor of L.N. Kogarko, who has found its first specimen.

June 3, 2004, in Malyi Theatre (Moscow) the presentation of international prize “Philanthropist” took place. Viktor Slyotov (born 1955), mineralogist and collector, has become one of its laureates for arts in the nomination “For novelty and originality in art” (pictures of minerals, verse). First the drawings of the author was shown in 1983 at the exhibition “Wonderful in stone”, where they have attracted general attraction with documentary accuracy. In May 2004 the third album of new drawings of minerals) was published.
more detail:  http://www.filantrop.ru/p04_2.htm; http://hiero.expo.ru/gallery/mineral/menu.html (drawings of minerals)

New book: Important summary on zeolites

Zeolites of alkaline massifs by Igor V. Pekov, Anna G. Turchkova, Ekaterina V. Lovskaya, Nikita V. Chukanov. Association Ekost, 2004, Moscow. – 168 p.
The authors noted that just alkaline massifs, as it will not seem unexpected, are distinguished by most variety of zeolites among all geological formations: “59(!) of 91 minerals of considered group (including 15 endemic species which are found while nowhere except alkaline complexes) were found here”. In the summary there are the data on this 59 zeolites, their occurrences, chemical composition (420 chemical analyses), the IR-spectroscopy, crystal morphology, mineral assemblages, genesis and typomorphism. The interesting peculiarity of a number of zeolites, enrichment by rare metals (Sr, Ba, Cs, Rb, Be), was noted. The possible role of sieve and catalytic properties of zeolites in the hydrothermal processes taking place in the alkaline massifs is discussed. The book contains numerous REM-photo and extensive list of references (315 titles).

The results of study of rich collection of specimens from 11 alkaline massifs of Russia and foreign countries were underlain in the base of this work. In the supplement there are the brief description of the specimens, the references on that are given in the text and tables. Many of the specimens were collected by the authors during field works in Lovozero and Khibiny in the last 15 years. In these massifs zeolites (in particular, natrolite) not only form vast accumulation but also are diverse (Kirovskii mine and Mts. Alluaiv, Karnasurt are stood out). I.V. Pekov has also visited alkaline massifs of Greenland, Morocco, Canada. Many specimens were given to the authors for study by famous collectors (Laszlo Horvath, Alexander Podlesnyi, Viktor Grishin, Viktor Levitskii, Aleksei Timofeev et al.), colleagues (Alexander Nikiforov, Dmitrii Lisitsyn, Mikhail Moiseev et al.), Geological Museum of Kola Scientific Center. The prevalence of zeolites in alkaline massifs and their localities are considered in large chapter containing references on findings of rare species interesting to mineralogists and collectors, for example, lovdarite and paranatrolite from Point of Rocks (New Mexico), gonnardite in Aris complex (Namibia), or assemblages, celestine-thomsonite veinlets in Fad’yu-Kuda massif (Central Taimyr). In the whole book there are the data about zeolites from more than 40 alkaline complexes of the world.

Moscow Friends of Mineralogy Club