Hey dear community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had an exciting day! In this post, I would like to talk a little about minerals and hope you can expand your knowledge a little.
Recently I photographed this specimen of the mineral Luzonite, which is a rare a copper arsenate in the chemical composition and has been found at less than 200 locations to date. For the first time, the mineral was examined by the German mineralogist Albin Weisbach (1833 - 1901), who was known to have researched and named more minerals and have recorded his knowledge in various literary works, but with Luzonite he was initially undecided and first placed his priority on the research of other minerals until he had the opportunity to examine the mineral as well as the exact composition in more detail some time later. The well-known chemist Clemens Alexander Winkler (1838 - 1904), who was also considered a discoverer of some important chemical elements and had a good knowledge when it came to chemical determination, took a closer look at the mineral and found out that it is a new mineral and together the two decided to name it after the type locality of the first specimens, which is known to be the island of Luzon, which is located in the northern part of the Philippines and is the largest island in the country. Later it was also assigned into the mineral class of the sufides as well as sulfosalts and it was found on Luzon probably in a copper-containing mine where it was formed under hydrothermal influences and can also be found together with minerals with similar chemical compositions and depending on the additions or contaminations it can take on a gray, black to purple color. Due to the influence of temperature or humidity, the appearance can change and to avoid this, you should always make sure to store it in a well-closed container. If you expose it to the wrong environmental conditions, it can happen that the appearance of the surface changes and collectors should pay urgent attention to it and from an economic point of view there is actually no significant field of application and it is particularly interesting in the circles of collectors or for research purposes.
Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about minerals! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.