[Rockhounds] Columbite

[DonH]

Pmodreski at aol.com wrote:

> It was standardized (the original paper was by Levinson himself, back  
> several decades ago--but only for the rare-earth minerals.

Oh I am quite familiar with this; and as you stated, it was written for 
the rare earth minerals, but as Al told me once, the nomenclature must 
be applied to combinations of structure and chemistry and shouldn't be 
applied arbitrarily to minerals outside the group he discussed--that 
conversation was at Rochester Symposium 2003, I think.

> Using this system for other minerals was the subject of quite a bit of  
> discussion in Tucson; apparently, the authors of the Glossary of Minerals  
> unilaterally decided to adopt this system for the mineral names therein, for  many 
> mineral groups

I would be shocked if that were the case.  I would have expected Joe, 
and his comrades, heirs and assigns holding the Fleischer grail, to 
maintain a meticulous regard for current standard nomeclature.  This is 
also based on conversations from the past.

Of course, Al Levinson and Joe Mandarino have gone to a better place, so 
they cannot weigh in on the conversation.  Who knows how it would occur. 
    There is always debate between the "lumpers" and the "splitters", 
but it seems there is a potential compromise at hand here, if we 
consider the "root name" (e.g., columbite, apatite) as the lumping and 
the modifier as the splitting, with all the minerals of that type listed 
in nice alphabetical order.  However I think using the occupancy of the 
halogen position in apatites (the "F" in your "CaF" example) is going 
too far, for reasons too long to explain, but relating in general to the 
fact that a Cl, F, or (OH) in that position really defines the apatite, 
but there can be a lot of substitution in that position whereby it 
becomes quite difficult to determine which one you have in the first place.

Well speaking of analysis I must get back to my data.... we're not going 
to solve this issue here, anyway, but I think people should keep an eye 
on the literature to see what is happening on this topic.

Best,
Don