Common
Associations: |
Reedmergnerite,
Leucosphenite, Searlesite, Crocidolite, Shortite (Kermit
Poulson No. 1 well, Utah, USA); Trona, Nahcolite, Shortite,
Northupite (Mapco Shrine Hospital #1 well, Utah, USA).
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Eitelite is an extremely rare carbonate mineral species
found at only a very few localities worldwide. Although
mindat.org lists several localities, the only sources
of any samples seems to be in the US at the Mapco Shrine Hospital No. 1 well, Duchesne County, Utah
and at the Westvaco Mine, Green River formation, Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
Of these two locations only the Wesvaco Mine has produced
crystals large enough to be faceted. The crystals from
there are large and unprecedented for the species. They
are also very attractive with colors of pale to straw
yellow with translucence and vitreous luster. The Westvaco
Mine crystals are a relatively new find first presented
at the 2012 Tucson Gem and Mineral show.
Sodium
magnesium carbonate (Eitelite) had been known from laboratory
experiments long before it was found as a natural mineral.
In 1851 De Sainte-Claire Deville found that the anhydrous
double carbonate formed when heating a concentrated
solution of sodium carbonate with magnesium bicarbonate
to boiling point.
Natural
Eitelite was first discovered in 1954 in a core sample
from about 2,800 feet deep in the Carter
Oil Company Kermit Poulson No. 1 Well, Duchesne County,
Utah, USA and
first analysed and described in 1955 by Charles Milton,
J. M. Axelrod and F. S. Grimaldi.
It was found in association with minerals such
as Crocidolite,
Searlesite and
Shortite.
Coincidentally, Shortite is another carbonate mineral
that was also discovered in a well
core sample.
Eitelite
was named to honor Dr. Wilhelm Hermann Julius Eitel
(1891–1979), founder and Director of the Institute of
Silicate Research, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio,
USA, who first synthesized the compound. German born
Eitel was among about 1,500 leading German scientists
brought to the United States after World War II in Operation
Paperclip, a postwar organization of scientific consultants
whose task was to bring German scientists to America.
He served as a consultant and research scientist for
the U. S. Navy, and came to the University of Toledo in
1952 to establish the Institute of Silicate Research.
The Institute has been renamed "The Eitel Institute
for Silicate Research" in honor of the director
emeritus. Dr. Eitel, who was proficient in twelve languages,
was the author of numerous scientific articles and books.
He had just completed volume 8 of his monograph series "Physical
Chemistry of Silicates", when he died.
Eitelite
distribution: in
the USA, in Utah, from drill core in the Green River
Formation, in Duchesne County, at the Kermit Poulson
No. 1 well and abundant in large crystals in the Mapco
Shrine Hospital #1 well; in the South Ouray well, Uintah
County. In Canada at the Ekati Mine, Lac de Gras, Northwest Territories.
From the Vuonnemiok River Valley, Khibiny massif, Kola
Peninsula, Russia. From Mahla Crater, Meidob Hills, South Darfur Wilayah, Sudan.
At the Darai-Pioz Glacier, Alai Range, Tien Shan Mtn, Region of Republican Subordination, Tajikistan.
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