Smithsonite

D.C.-Area Teens Interview Smithsonian Geologist About Volcanoes and the Museum’s Rock Collection

Recently, two local teenagers from Washington, D.C., and Virginia interviewed NMNH Geologist Ben Andrews. Luís and Camile are recent graduates from the museum’s Youth Engagement Through Science (YES!) program, which connects local youth with Smithsonian scientists to gain hands-on experience with natural history research and science communication. After expressing interest in the opportunity to meet one the museum’s 400-plus scientists, they were invited back to interview Ben about his research on volcanoes and the museum’s Rock and Ore Collection, of which he is Acting Curator in Charge.

Luís and Camile met Ben in his office to interview him and then returned to the museum at a later date to help NMNH educators Adam Blankenbicker and Rebecca Bray create a series of podcasts. Each segment of the podcast series focuses on an aspect of volcanoes, Ben’s research, or the Rock & Ore Collection.  You can stream these audio files below.

 

Listen to Ben explaining how volcanoes work to the students:

Can you stop a volcano?

How much magma is erupted?

Where the volcanoes are

Ben's experiments

About the Rock & Ore Collection

 

 

 

 
Luis and Camile (right) interview Ben Andrews in his office at the Smithsonian's
National Museum of Natural History. Photo by Adam Blankenbicker, Smithsonian.

 

Geologist Ben Andrews behind the scenes showing a piece of cave rock to teen
interviewers.  Photo by Adam Blankenbicker, Smithsonian.

 

 

The Department of Mineral Science’s Cold-Seal Hydrothermal furnaces which
Ben Andrews uses in his experiments to simulate pressure (up to 300 MPa) and
temperature (up to 950°C) conditions that are found in the middle to upper crust
of the Earth. Photo by Ben Andrews, Smithsonian.

 

The Experimental Volcanology Laboratory located at the Museum Support
Center (MSC) in Suitland, MD is a facility that permits the study of  particle-laden
density currents that model pyroclastic flows from volcanoes.  The one-of-a-kind
“tank” uses a custom set of red, blue and green laser sheets to illuminate different
planes within the experiments to provide 3D insights into the understanding of
natural pyroclastic flows. Photo by Ben Andrews, Smithsonian.

 

 

This National Museum of Natural History Volcano podcast series referenced above is generously funded by the Ruth Osterweis Selig and Rollyn Osterweis Krichbaum Endowment for the Public Understanding of Research about Nature and Culture.

New Post-doc Fellows in Mineral Sciences

The Department of Mineral Sciences is pleased to welcome post-doc fellows Laura Waters and Mattia Pistone to NMNH.  Laura completed her PhD degree in Igneous Geochemistry and Experimental Petrology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, working on determining the origins of phenocryst-poor glassy rhyolite-obsidians through detailed petrographic and experimental investigation of phenocrysts within those lavas.  While at NMNH, Laura will be conducting experiments with Ben Andrews to constrain and quantify the processes that result in the crystallization of small quantities of phenocrysts in obsidian and allow for the ascent and eruption of lavas that consists of >97% glass. 

 

Mattia Pistone comes to NMNH via ETH-Zurich (Switzerland) where he obtained his PhD and the University of Bristol (United Kingdom) where he finished his first postdoctoral fellowship.  Mattia's research interest is on the physical properties of multiphase magmas in the Earth's crust.  At the Smithsoniain, Mattia will be working with Elizabeth Cottrell to simulate the evolution of  basaltic magmas from the Alaska-Aleutians. The study hopes to experimentally determine how water and oxygen fugacity control magma differentiation in arc-related settings such as that of the Alaska-Aleutians.

 

 

 

New Acquisitions from Tucson

The Smithsonian recently acquired several new specimens for the National Gem & Mineral Collections during the 2015 Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.   One of the pieces, the "Southwest Sunset", was donated by Award winning gem carver Sherris Cottier Shank.  The sculpture consists of a 443 ct Ametrine (purple and yellowish quartz from Bolivia) Sun sinking into 1407.77 cts of rose (pink) quartz  (from Madagascar)  clouds.  Ms. Shank has won 8 Cutting Edge awards and this sculpture was recently displayed at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Southwest Sunset carved by Sherris Cottier Shank.  Photo courtesy of Ms. Shank.

 

In addition to a number of rare, type mineral species, opal that fluoresces in daylight and more new minerals from China, the Smithsonian also acquired a suite of tourmaline gems from Mozambique, an exquisite example of the cobalt-bearing mineral erythrite from Morocco and a new occurrence of fluorapophyllite on heulandite. 

 

Suite of elbaite gemstones from Mozambique (gift of the David Yurman Company).  The six stones range in weight from 21.90 (peach-colored) to 45.33 (lavender-colored) carats.  Total weight of six stones - 192.3 cts.  Photo by Michael Wise. 

 

Erythrite, Bou-Azzer, Morocco.  Specimen is 4.8 cm high.  Photo by Michael Wise. 

Fluorapophyllite on heulandite, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, India.  Specimen is 8.2 cm high.  Both minerals are colored deep green by inclusions of the mineral celadonite.   Photo by Michael Wise.

 

Dept. Mineral Sciences/Smithsonian Associates Teachers Workshop (Bismarck, ND)

Michael Wise and Tim McCoy were speakers during a five day Smithsonian Associates Teachers Workshop held at the United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, ND.  The participants were undergraduates working towards degrees in elementary education and represented 10 different Native-American tribes from the Bismarck area.  Other speakers from the Smithsonian Institution included Jim Zimbelman and Jennifer McIntosh from the National Air & Space Museum. 

United Tribes Technical College Arts professor Butch ThunderHawk, (left),
instructs workshop participants on how to create paints from earth and
mineral pigments.

 

The workshop, directed by the Smithsonian staff members, featured presentations and hands-on, object-based activities on various topics in earth science such as rock and mineral identification, the concept of geologic time, a look at the Earth, Moon and Sun system,  and the geology of Mars. 

 

Workshop particpants use candy to create an "edible" solar system in an activity designed to introduce them to the scale of planets.

 

One of the highlights of the workshop was a one-day field trip led by Mike and Jim to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park near Medora, ND where the group learned about the geology of the North Dakota Badlands. 

 View of the North Dakota Badlands from the Painted Canyon Visitor Center just outside of Medora, ND.

 

 United Tribes Technical College students hiking along a trail in the North Dakota Badlands  (Theodore Roosevelt National Park).  Geologist Jim Zimbelman (in white cap) heads for a closer inspection of folding in the rock outcrop.

 

  United Tribes Technical College students at the site of their geology field activity.

Mineral Sciences Research Update

Two new articles from the staff of Mineral Sciences have recently been published.   Glenn MacPherson was part of a collaborative effort (13 co-authors) to characterize the properties of icosahedite, a natural alloy that displays three-dimensional icosahedral symmetry.  What makes this discovery so special is that it is the first and only known naturally occurring quasicrystal (a structure where the atoms are arranged in an orderly pattern, but never exactly repeat).  This is contrary to minerals in general which have structures characterized by the orderly arrangement of atoms that do repeat.  The quasicrystal was found within a piece of the Khatyrka meteorite and according to Glenn and his co-authors, present evidence that impact-induced shock occurred in the early solar system and created aluminum-copper alloys as natural products.  The article describing this amazing material was published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

An article authored by Ben Andrews appears in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research and provides a detailed examination of caldera formation from the 1902 eruption of the Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala.  Relying on the analysis of natural volcanic materials (pumice and rock phenocrysts) and the results of laboratory experiments, Ben was able to determine the depth and temperature of magma prior to eruption and the decompression rate of the magma and subsequent caldera collapse during eruption.

Andrews, B.J. (2014) Magmatic storage conditions, decompression rate, and incipient caldera collapse of the 1902 eruption of the Santa Maria Volcano, Guatemala. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 282, 103-114.

Hollister, L. S., Bindi, L., Yao, N., Poirier, G. R., Andronicos, C. L., MacPherson, G. J., Lin, C., Distler, V.V., Eddy, M.P., Kostin, A., Kryachko, V., Steinhardt, W.M., Yudovskaya, M., Eiler, J.M., Guan, Y., Clarke, J.J. & Steinhardt, P.J. (2014). Impact-induced shock and the formation of natural quasicrystals in the early solar system. Nature communications, 5, 1–8, doi:10.1038/ncomms5040 (2014).

Related articles

In a Grain, a Glimpse of the Cosmos

"Smithsonian Science How?" live webcast featuring volcanologist Liz Cottrell

Department of Mineral Sciences volcanologist Liz Cottrell was recently the guest scientist on the Smithsonian Science How? webcast which was broadcasted live from Q?rius in the National Museum of Natural History.  During two half-hour sessions, Liz explained to veiwers all about volcanoes and how they work, shared her experiences in the field and at the Museum, and also answered questions sent in from viewers.

The May 15, 2014 webcast (Volcano Geochemistry: Windows to Earth's Interior) can be viewed at the Smithsonian Science How? webcast archive at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/47591166.

 

New England Mineral Conference 2014 (NEMC) May-9-11

The second annual NEMC was held this past weekend at the Grand Summit Resort Hotel at Sun River, Newry, Maine and was well attended by nearly 100 amateur mineral enthusiasts, miners,  mineral dealers and scientists.  Michael Wise from the Department of Mineral Sciences (National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution) was one of six invited speakers and got the conference opening session off to a great start with his well-received Friday night presentation on New England minerals in the National Gem & Mineral Collections. 

 

In addition to the talks, there were display cases which featured mineral specimens from the mines of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.  Mike took advantage of the opportunity to speak to a number of Maine miners and prospectors about their current activities and secured invitations for future visits to the mines with the hope of acquiring new mineral specimens for the Smithsonian’s collections

Recent discovery of tourmalines from the Havey mine, Poland, ME.

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show Report (Part 2)

In mid-February of 2014, the mineralogists from the Department of Mineral Sciences went to Tucson, Arizona for the 60^th Annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.  Held every February, the Tucson Show is one of the largest shows of its kind in the world and is regularly attended by representatives of the Smithsonian Institution.

 

Our presence at the Tucson  Gem & Mineral Show is not restricted to acquiring specimens for our collections.  Each year we set-up temporary exhibits that highlight some of the best gems & minerals from our collections.

  The Smithsonian booth at the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) show.

 

 Display of gems donated by the Smithsonian Gemstone Collectors.

 

Display of new gemstones donated by various vendors and individuals attending the AGTA show.

 

 

At the "Main Show", held at the Tucson Convention Center, there are lectures and display cases in addition to more wholesale and retail dealers.  Displays are presented by museums, dealers and collectors and typically relate to the theme of the year's show.  Exhibitors may also simply display new acquisitions or specimens of personal interest.  This year's show theme was "6o Years of Diamonds, Gems, Silver and Gold".  We decided to exhibit the "Post Diamond Tiara" and various diamond crystals from around the world, highlighted by a pile of loose natural diamond crystals from  Zimbabwe that weighed nearly 4 pounds.

Curator-in-Charge Jeff Post makes some final adjustments to the Post Diamond Tiara display at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Main Show.

 

Department of Mineral Sciences staff start assembling their Diamond exhibit.

 

An assortment of diamonds in the Smithsonian display case.  Note the pile of Zimbabwe diamonds in the center of the case.

 

A handful of uncut diamonds from Zimbabwe.  The total weight of these diamonds was about 3.5 pounds.

 

The Smithsonian's Diamond exhibit at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.

 

The Tucson Gem & Mineral Show is one of the highlights of our year and we look forward to attending every year.  It has always been a great venue for finding new and exciting specimens to add to the National Collection.  The "Show" also provides us with an opportunity to showcase specimens which are generally not on public display in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. 

We can hardly wait until next February!

Tucson Gem & Mineral Show Report

In mid-February of 2014, the mineralogists from the Department of Mineral Sciences went to Tucson, Arizona for the 60^th Annual Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.  Held every February, the Tucson Show is one of the largest shows of its kind in the world and is regularly attended by representatives of the Smithsonian Institution.

The Hotel Tucson City Center (formerly InnSuites Hotel) - arguably the best of the hotel shows for most mineral collectors.

Ahhh…sunny and warm Tucson, Arizona and our annual trip to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show is finally here! What a nice break from the cold of Washington, DC.  Time to buy some minerals.  Jeff Post, Russ Feather and Christine Webb had already been in Tucson attending the major gem shows for almost a week prior to the arrival of Paul Pohwat, Joe Mack and myself on February 11^th.  This was Joe’s first trip to this mineral and gem extravaganza and he had a great time.  Once we all got settled in, we began the business of looking for new specimens for the collections.  This involves lots of walking and visiting mineral dealers who convert their hotel rooms to “mini-shops”.

    
Paul and Joe get ready for a day of   One of the nearly 200 dealer rooms at the Hotel Tucson.
shopping for minerals.

One of our favorite vendors is Jorde Fabre of Fabre Minerals. Jorde is a really nice guy and always has interesting specimens to show us.  It seems every year he has set aside something that we can’t resist getting for the Museum’s Mineral Collection.  This year it was a chalcocite/chalcopyrite specimen from China.

The Mineral Acquisition Committee looks over the  merchandise of Fabre Minerals for potential specimens to add to the Mineralogy Collection.  Photos by Joe Mack, Smithsonian Institution.

         Jeff and Mike examining one of the new azurites from Mexico.  Photo by
         Joe Mack, Smithsonian Institution.

Not all deals take place in hotel rooms…some even occur in the parking lot! We were shown some fabulous azurites from Milpillas, Mexico. Fantastic material, but a bit pricey for us.  Most people do not realize that selling minerals is big business.  Minerals can be found at every price level.  Low-quality specimens can be bought for as little as $5.  Prices for very good specimens can range anywhere from $100 to almost $5,000 and  "museum-quality" mineral specimens suitable for display in public exhibitions can easily have prices in excess of $20,000.  In my many years of attending the Tucson Show, I have also seen nicely displayed minerals with price tags of $100,000 or more.  Too much for our budget...but still nice to look at.  Speaking of mineral displays, check back later for an update on the Smithsonian's displays at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.

                              Typical mineral prices at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show.  Photo
                              by Joe Mack, Smithsonian Institution.

  A suite of high-quality mineral specimens with high-end prices.  This display case of minerals, all for sale, priced out at roughly $1.7 million dollars!

 

Welcome to the Department of Mineral Sciences Blog!

This blog brings you reports, research news, images and more from the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

Recent NMNH Mineral Sciences Publications

Within the past few weeks, several new papers have been published by members of our staff.  As expected, the topics are varied and include studies on meteorites, microbial interaction and the remediation of polluted ponds, and diamonds in our collection.

Abreu, N.M., & Bullock, E.S. 2013. Opaque assemblages in CR2 Graves Nunataks (GRA) 06100 as indicators of shock-driven hydrothermal alteration in the CR chondrite parent body. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 48, 2406-2429.

 Andrews, B.J., & Manga, M. 2014. Thermal and rheological controls on the formation of mafic enclaves or banded pumice. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 167 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00410-013-0961-7

 Archer, G.J., Ash,  R.D., Bullock, E.S., & Walker, R.J. 2014. Highly siderophile elements and ¹⁸⁷Re-¹⁸⁷Os Isotopic systematics of the Allende Meteorite: evidence for primary nebular processes and late-stage alteration. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2013.12.032

Feather, R.C. 2014. Beyond Hope: Some Other Notable Diamonds at the Smithsonian Institution—Part 1. Rocks & Minerals 89, 27-9.

McSween, H., Binzel, R., De Sanctis, M., Ammannito, E., Prettyman, T., Beck A.W., Reddy, V., Le Corre, L., Gaffey, M., Raymond, C. & Russell, C. 2013. Dawn; the Vesta-HED connection; and the geologic context for eucrites, diogenites, and howardites. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 48, 2090-2104.

Morlok, A., Lisse, C., Mason, A.B., Bullock, E.S. & Grady, M.M. 2013. Mid-Infrared spectroscopy of components in Chondrites: search for processed materials in young solar systems and comets. Icarus 231, 338–355.

Prettyman, T.H., Mittlefehldt, D.W., Yamashita, N., Beck, A.W., Feldman. W.C., Hendricks. J.S., Lawrence, D.J., McCoy, T.J., McSween, H.Y., Peplowski, P.N., Reedy, R.C., Toplis, M.J., Le Corre, L., Mizzon, H., Reddy, V., Titus, T.N., Raymond, C.A., & Russell, C.T. 2013. Neutron absorption constraints on the composition of 4 Vesta. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 48, 2211-36.

Post, J.E. 2014.  The Hope Diamond: Rare Gem, Historic Jewel. Rocks & Minerals 89, 16-26.

Pohwat, P.W. 2014. Connoisseur's Choice: Diamond, Dutoitspan Mine, Kimberley, Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Rocks & Minerals 89, 54-65.

 

Three articles focusing on diamonds from the recently published Rocks & Minerals magazine.

 

Santelli, C.M., Chaput, D.L. & Hansel, C.M. 2014. Microbial communities promoting Mn(II) oxidation in Ashumet Pond, a historically polluted freshwater pond undergoing remediation. Geomicrobiology Journal http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01490451.2013.875605

Toplis, M.J., Mizzon, H., Monnereau, M., Forni, O., McSween, H.Y., Mittlefehldt, D.W., McCoy, T.J., Prettyman, T.H., De Sanctis, M.C., Raymond, C.A. & Russell, C.T. 2013. Chondritic models of 4 Vesta: Implications for geochemical and geophysical properties. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 48, 2300-2315.