An international team of geologists led by Monash University Professor Joël Brugger has discovered a new thallium mineral — nataliyamalikite.
Nataliyamalikite (TlI) grains on the mineral mascagnite (NH4)2SO4. Image credit: Okrugin et al, doi: 10.2138/am-2017-6057.
Nataliyamalikite is the orthorhombic form of thallium iodide (TlI).
“It contains thallium, a rare heavy metal most famous for its qualities as a poison,” said Prof. Brugger, lead author of a paper published in the journal American Mineralogist.
The new mineral was discovered in the Kamchatka Peninsula — one of the long-lived volcanically active areas on Earth, with activity dating back to the Late Triassic epoch.
It occurs as pseudo-cubic nanocrystals at Kamchatka’s Avacha volcano, in association with active high temperature (up to 1,148-1,184 degrees Fahrenheit, or 620-640 degrees Celsius) fumarolic vents.
“The discovery of this new mineral means we will be able to better understand how metals are extracted from deep-seated sources within our planet, and concentrated at shallow levels to form economic ore deposits,” Prof. Brugger said.
“This will give us a unique insight into the processes responsible for the geochemical evolution of our planet.”
Nataliyamalikite is named for Dr. Natalja Malik, a geoecology researcher at the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Kamchatka Peninsula.
“Our colleague was the first to see the mineral under the electron microscope,” Prof. Brugger said.
“However, Monash University was key to making the naming of the new mineral possible: we combined state-of-the-art sample preparation at our Monash Centre for Electronic Microscopy facility, along with the unique capabilities of the Australian Synchrotron, to obtain the crystal structure of the mineral.”
“Understanding the crystal structure is akin to getting the full genome of the new mineral,” he added.
“And in the case of nataliyamalikite this was incredibly difficult as the grains are tiny and almost invisible.”
The mineral and its name were recently approved by the IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names.
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V. Okrugin et al. 2017. Smoking gun for thallium geochemistry in volcanic arcs: nataljamalikite, TlI, a new thallium mineral from an active fumarole at Avacha Volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula. American Mineralogist: 102; doi: 10.2138/am-2017-6057
