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Timeline of the discovery and classification of minerals

Georgius Agricola is considered the 'father of mineralogy'. Nicolas Steno founded the stratigraphy (the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification)), the geology characterizes the rocks in each layer and the mineralogy characterizes the minerals in each rock. The chemical elements were discovered in identified minerals and with the help of the identified elements the mineral crystal structure could be described. One milestone was the discovery of the geometrical law of crystallization by René Just Haüy, a further development of the work by Nicolas Steno and Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle (the characterisation of a crystalline mineral needs knowledge on crystallography). Important contributions came from some Saxon "Bergraths"/ Freiberg Mining Academy: Johann F. Henckel, Abraham Gottlob Werner and his students (August Breithaupt, Robert Jameson, José Bonifácio de Andrada and others). Other milestones were the notion that metals are elements too (Antoine Lavoisier) and the periodic table of the elements by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. The overview of the organic bonds by Kekulé was necessary to understand the silicates, first refinements described by Bragg and Machatschki; and it was only possibly to understand a crystal structure with Dalton's atomic theory, the notion of atomic orbital and Goldschmidt's explanations. Specific gravity, streak (streak color and mineral hardness) and X-ray powder diffraction are quite specific for a Nickel-Strunz identifier (updated 9th ed.). Nowadays, non-destructive electron microprobe analysis is used to get the empirical formula of a mineral. Finally, the International Zeolite Association (IZA) took care of the zeolite frameworks (part of molecular sieves and/or molecular cages).

There are only a few thousand mineral species and 83 geochemically stable chemical elements combine to form them (84 elements, if plutonium and the Atomic Age are included). The mineral evolution in the geologic time context were discussed and summarised by Arkadii G. Zhabin (and subsequent Russian workers), Robert M. Hazen, William A. Deer, Robert A. Howie and Jack Zussman.

Milestones

Neolithic Age, and after it

  • Neolithic Age (new stone era) beginning about 10,200 years ago: flint tools (diagenesis of marine microfossils, microcristalline opal and chalcedony), jade tools (usually nephrite, jadeitite or jadeite-jade is less common), kaolin earth (adobe bricks made by drying of clay), copper, gold, silver and rocksalt. Locally, beads of turquoise and lazurite are found.
  • <small>Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia, dating back to the 10th–8th millennium BC.</small>
  • <small>Note: nephrite is a microcristalline variety of tremolite (ferro-actinolite–tremolite solid solution series); white nephrite is almost pure tremolite and iron gives nephrite its green colour.</small>
  • Bronze Age, Near East (3600–1200 BC), Europe (3600–600 BC), Indian Subcontinent (3300–1200 BC).
  • Chalcolithic Age (copper age) beginning about 7,000 years ago: copper, gold, silver, mercury.
  • In the early Bronze Age, lead was used with antimony and arsenic.
  • The use of meteoric iron–nickel alloy has been traced as far back as 3500 BC.
  • Iron Age, Ancient Near East (1300–600 BC), India (1200–200 BC), Europe (1200 BC – 400 AD).
  • Illustration, Torah (in Hebrew), Septuagint (translation in Ancient Greek), Vulgate (translation in Latin), Douay–Rheims Bible (translation in English), Book of Numbers 31:22: Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin (Latin: "aurum et argentum et aes et ferrum et stagnum et plumbum"). Book of Exodus 28:16–20 cites following decorative stones (list of precious stones in the Bible): (the "breastplate" or "rational" of the Jewish High Priest) It shall be foursquare and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and in breadth. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius stone, and a topaz, and an emerald (Latin: "primo versu erit lapis sardius et topazius et zmaragdus"): In the second a carbuncle, a sapphire and a jasper (Latin: "in secundo carbunculus sapphyrus et iaspis"). In the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst (Latin: "in tertio ligyrius achates et amethistus"): In the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl (Latin: "in quarto chrysolitus onychinus et berillus"). They shall be set in gold by their rows. Book of Revelation 21:19–20: And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper: the second, sapphire: the third, a chalcedony: the fourth, an emerald: The fifth, sardonyx: the sixth, sardius: the seventh, chrysolite: the eighth, beryl: the ninth, a topaz: the tenth, a chrysoprasus: the eleventh, a jacinth: the twelfth, an amethyst (Latin: "primum iaspis secundus sapphyrus tertius carcedonius quartus zmaragdus quintus sardonix sextus sardinus septimus chrysolitus octavus berillus nonus topazius decimus chrysoprassus undecimus hyacinthus duodecimus amethistus").
  • <small>Suggested combined translation: a red aggregate of microgranular speckled ferruginous "chalcedony" ("from" Heybeliada?, Prince Islands, Chalcedon, Constantinople's sphere of influence) (iaspis, jasper; it means "spotted or speckled stone"); corundum, var. sapphire; "chalcedony", var. onyx; beryl, var. emerald ("from" Mons Smaragdus?, Wadi El Gamal National Park); "chalcedony", var. agate (sardonyx, "from" river "Achates" (river Dirillo), Sicily); "chalcedony", var. sard (sardius; "from" Sardis, Asia Minor); topaz (chrysolite; "from" Topazon Island?, Seven Sisters, Gulf of Tadjoura); beryl, var. aquamarine; olive greenish yellow fosterite, var. peridot (topaz "from" Topazios (Zabargad Island), Red Sea); "chalcedony", var. chrysoprase ("from" Liguria, Italy); red pyrope (carbuncle, jacinth, hyacinth; a garnet, almandine-pyrope series); quartz, var. amethyst. Note: the fosterite–fayalite solid solution series is called olivine.</small>
  • Illustration, Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian funerary practices: a natural material found in Wadi Natrun is used (a mixture of natron and rocksalt (?)). The iconic gold burial mask of Tutankhamun, has inlays of turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian and coloured glass. Eye shadow (kohl) using black galena, green malachite, stibnite, lead or coal, for instance.
  • Illustration, Persian Empire (728–330 BC period) and Babylonian Empire: blue (lapis lazuli) glazed bricks, for instance (Ishtar Gate, Pergamon Museum).

Greco-Roman and Byzantine period, mainly

  • Greco-Roman period:
  • De Anima Libri III of Aristotle (4th century BC). Description of mercury (metal).
  • Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC)
  • Illustration: amber (lyncurion of Theophrastus), chrysocolla, agate, cinnabar, orpiment, realgar. First brass (calamine plus copper process) appears in the middle of first century BC in the Roman Imperium, zircon and tourmalines are not found on ancient art works.
  • The oldest known pills were made of the zinc carbonates hydrozincite (described 1853) and smithsonite (described 1832). Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc (hemimorphite (IMA1962 s.p.) and smithsonite).
  • De architectura (about 15 BC) of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Libri X, vol. VII, Caput 8. Note: description of natural mercury from the Cilbian fields near the former Greek city of Ephesus.
  • Book V: Minerals, description of melanterite (50 AD) and chalcanthite (70 AD).
  • Naturalis Historia [The Natural History]: (77 AD) of Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder, 23 AD – 25 August 79 AD).
  • Volumes: liber xxxv (alumen); liber xxxvi (limestone); liber xxxvii [Book XXXVII – The Natural History of Precious Stones] (augites).
  • Illustration: turquoise (callais of Pliny), tourmaline, almandine (corruption of alabandicus of Pliny), moroxite (apatite var.), limestone (calcite), magnetite, emery (corundum, hematite and magnetite), atramentum sutorium (goslarite, melanterite), misy from Cyprus (copiapite, hydroniumjarosite, jarosite, natrojarosite). Note: alabandicus of Pliny is a garnet worked at Alabanda (Αλαβάνδα, an ancient city of Caria, Anatolia).
  • Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 113 AD), Epistulae (Letters): description of calcite and beryl.
  • Damigeron de Lapidibus, "Orphei Lithica" (c. IV AD) [translated to Latin by Eugenius Abel, 1881]. Note: describes curing of ailments by 30 stones.
  • Isidore of Seville (c. 600 AD) Etymologiae.
  • Turkish traveller Muḥammad AbÅ«'l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal: Ibn Hawqal (977 AD) "The Face of the Earth".
  • AbÅ« al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-BÄ«rÅ«nÄ« (973–1048): Al-Biruni (1000) The Book Most Comprehensive in Knowledge On Precious Stones. He considers "zarnarrud" (emerald) and "zabarjad" (peridot) the same mineral.
  • Uzbek (Persian) scholar and physician, Avicenna (about 980 – June 1037). He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived.
  • Illustration, elements known to the ancients (about 1000&nbsp;AD, timeline of chemical elements discoveries): carbon, sulfur, iron, arsenic, antimony, zinc, copper, lead, silver, tin, gold, mercury.
  • Marbode (1100).
  • Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great, 1193/1206 – 15 November 1280). Isolation of arsenic.
  • Prior to the Spanish conquest (1492):
  • Pre-Columbian Americans used platinum.
  • Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) traded with turquoise.
  • Illustration:
  • Realgar from Arabic "rahj al-gahr" (powder of the mine). Salammoniac (άλς άμμωυιακός: sals ammonikos, salt of Ammon), for rocksalt mined by Amun's Temple, Egypt. Trabzonite (IMA1983-071a) for Trabzon, Turkey (Τραπεζοῦς: Trapezous, Trebizond).
  • There are three large peridots probably from the 12th century in the Shrine of the Three Magi in Cologne Cathedral, they were believed to be emeralds.
  • Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom: the Black Prince's Ruby (a spinel) was given in 1367 to its namesake, Edward of Woodstock (the "Black Prince").

After the fall of Constantinople (after 1453)

Lavoisier, Werner, Haüy, Klaproth, Berzelius and Dalton (after 1715)

Maxwell, periodic table, electron and mole (after 1815)

100 years 'American Mineralogist' (after 1915)

International Mineralogical Association period (after 1957)

  • 1958, foundation of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMMN). It is affiliated to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).
  • Note: this publication got delayed, as silicate minerals were being better understood.
  • Note: main work is a series with 11 volumes (as of 2013).
  • Michael Fleischer's "Alphabetical Index of New Mineral Names, Discredited Minerals, and Changes of Mineralogical Nomenclature, Volumes 1–50 (1916–1965), The American Mineralogist" (1966). Note: "Glossary of Mineral Species" (1971) 1 ed. is based on it.
  • 3rd International Molecular Sieve Conference (1973): organisation of the International Zeolite Association (IZA).
  • 1978, Joint Committee on Powder Diffraction Standards (JCPDS) is renamed International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD). A lot of compounds have an 'ICDD Card'.
  • 25 December 1993, beginning of the MinDat database; it goes online in October 2000.
  • International Mineralogical Association's (IMA) zeolite group and International Zeolite Association's (IZA) zeolite frameworks have similarities (1997).
  • Note: webmineral.com's database.

IMA Master List of Valid Minerals period (after 1999)

  • 2001, Mineralienatlas database goes online.
  • Bernard Elgey Leake (born 1932), Frank Christopher Hawthorne (born 1946) and Roberta Oberti (born 1952): classification of amphiboles, mainly (1978–2012).
  • Rruff Project, prof. Robert (Bob) Downs, Mineralogy and Crystallography, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, funded in part by Michael Scott.
  • 19th General Meeting of IMA, Kobe, Japan (July 2006).
  • The merging of the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMMN) and the Commission on Classification of Minerals (CCM) resulted in the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC).
  • It was decided to create a website presenting the "official" IMA list of minerals.
  • Nickel E H, Nichols M C (2007) IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols supplied through the courtesy of Materials Data, Inc.: it updates the Nickel-Strunz 9 ed mineral identifiers, with this publication the mineral database had increased from less than 3,000 to over 4,000 mineral species. Mainly through the work of Ernest Henry Nickel, Monte C. Nichols and Dorian G.W. Smith. The mineral list on the Rruff Project website was built up with the IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names (March 2007).
  • Robert M. Hazen, summary of mineral evolution in the geologic time context (2008).
  • October 2008: Erika Pohl-Ströher donates her mineral collection to the "TU Bergakademie Freiberg", Freudenstein Castle, "terra mineralia" permanent exhibition.
  • Note: tetrarooseveltite (β-Bi(AsO<sub>4</sub>), an arsenate mineral) is a member of the scheelite mineral group (a sulfate group).
  • Moëlo et al. (2008) "Sulfosalt systematics: a review", sulfosalt minerals are redefined.
  • Nickel E H, Nichols M C (2009) IMA/CNMNC list of mineral names compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols supplied through the courtesy of Materials Data, Inc.
  • Mineral group (strict sense) is redefined.
  • 'The IMA Master List' (November 2012): redefinition of amphibole minerals.

After 100 years 'American Mineralogist' (after 2015)

Beginnings of the 'IMA Master List of Minerals'

  • James A. Ferraiolo (1982) "Systematic Classification of Nonsilicate Minerals", Bulletin 172, American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Note: the Bulletin 172 was used to update the Dana (7 ed) IDs. The Nickel-Strunz (10 ed) IDs on webmineral.com are partially from his collaboration.
  • John W. Anthony, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh, and Monte C. Nichols, Eds., Handbook of Mineralogy (HOM), Mineralogical Society of America (MSA), Chantilly, VA 20151-1110, US.
  • Ernest Nickel & Monte Nichols. Mineral Names, Redefinitions & Discreditations Passed by the CNMMN of the IMA (ARD List of Minerals, 2002), updated 2004 (Burke, 2006). Abbreviation (ARD): approved (A), revalidated (R) and discredited minerals (D).
  • 19th General Meeting of IMA, Kobe, Japan (July 2006): it was decided to create a website presenting the "official" IMA list of minerals.
  • Abbreviation (GQN): grandfathered (G), questionable (Q) and published without approval minerals. Note: questionable minerals that could not be discredited got grandfathered as well.
  • Rruff.info/IMA database is built up based on 'IMA/CNMNC List of Mineral Names' compiled by Ernest H. Nickel & Monte C. Nichols (March 2007), courtesy of Minerals Data, Inc. This list is the result of the GQN list and the ARD list.
  • Buserite's status is 'approved' (IMA1970-024):
  • Courtesy of Minerals Data, Inc.; is released.
  • Orthochamosite is discredited:
  • 'The New IMA List of Minerals' is released (2011/ September 2012). Note: the CNMNC revised the 'ARD List of minerals', reducing the number of grandfathered minerals.
  • 'Metauranocircite II' gets dumped: ,
  • Note: nowadays, there are more or less hundred new minerals every year (it was made possible by the 'IMA Master List of Minerals' as reference).

Handbooks on mineralogy/ petrology

The System of Mineralogy of James D. Dana

  • 580&nbsp;pages.
  • 640&nbsp;pages.
  • 711&nbsp;pages.
  • Note: 2 volumes; Vol. I, 320&nbsp;pages and Vol. II, 534&nbsp;pages. It uses for the first time a chemical classification system (elements, sulfides, oxides, silicates, and so on).
  • 827&nbsp;pages.
  • 1134&nbsp;pages.
  • James Dwight Dana; Edward Salisbury Dana (1899) First appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1899, 75&nbsp;pages.
  • James Dwight Dana; Edward Salisbury Dana; William E Ford (1914) Second appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1909, 114&nbsp;pages.
  • William Ebenezer Ford; James Dwight Dana (1915) Third appendix to the sixth edition of Dana's System of mineralogy : Completing the work to 1915, 87&nbsp;pages.
  • Note: 3 volumes; Vol. I (1944), 834&nbsp;pages, Vol. II (1951), 1124&nbsp;pages, Vol. III (Silica Minerals, Clifford Frondel, 1962), 334&nbsp;pages.
  • 1872&nbsp;pages. Note: a more compact edition.

Glossary of Mineral Species

  • Note: no mineral groups section in this edition.

Strunz Mineralogical Tables

  • Note: corrected edition.
  • <small> Note: reprint.</small>

Rock-Forming Minerals series

Carl Friedrich Rammelsberg series

  • Erstes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie (1843), Zweites Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie (1845), Drittes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie (1847), Viertes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie (1849) and Fünftes Supplement zu dem Handwörterbuch des chemischen Theils der Mineralogie (1853).

Carl Hintze

  • Note: 6 volumes.
  • Carl Hintze, Karl F Chudoba (1968 and 2011). Handbuch der Mineralogie : Ergänzungsband III: Neue Mineralien und neue Mineralnamen (mit Nachträgen, Richtigstellungen und Ergänzungen). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co. Note: digital file.

Handbook for chemists and physicists (D'Ans Lax)

  • Note: 3 volumes.

Max H. Hey

See also

References