Galería de Minerales FMF

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Uraninite at the AMNH – The American Connection

Included for comparison is a photograph of what might be the third largest Uraninite specimen to be publically exhibited in recorded history. The specimen weighed just over 60 kilograms and consisted of an inner core of Uraninite covered in a ‘deliciously’ thick layer of Schoepite. It was exhibited for many years at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). In the photograph Dr. Brian H. Mason (1917-2009) Curator of the Department of Physical Geology and Mineralogy at the Museum (1953-1965) can be seen measuring the radiation from the superb specimen. The specimen was donated to the AMNH in 1955 by Vernon J. Pick and it came from the Pick’s Delta Mine, San Rafael Swell Mining District, Emery County, Utah, USA. What a fine specimen to have in a private collection – the mineralogical stories it could tell and the secrets it could reveal – truly amazing and absolutely beautiful!

I think some folks might find the following piece of historical trivia interesting. Dr. Mason was an expert on meteorites and was the first scientist to suggest that some meteorites found in Antarctica were in fact moon rocks. Between 1962 and 1965 Dr. Mason took part in several Australian-American expeditions to the clay pans in central South Australia in search of Australites (Tektites). The Australian team was led by R.O Chalmers, Curator of Minerals at the Australian Museum and the man largely responsibility for the acquisition of the fantastic specimen of Uraninite from El Sherana. Dr. Mason also had two minerals named in his honour, Brianite a Sodium-Calcium-Magnesium phosphate mineral (Na2CaMg(PO4)2) and Stenhuggarite a rare Calcium-Iron-Antimony mineral (CaFeAs2SbO7). The mineral name Stenhuggarite is a clever use of the Swedish word Stenhuggare for stonemason honouring Dr. Mason’s work as the proverbial stone man. Asteroid 12926 Brianmason is also named in his honor. In 1965 he became Curator of Meteorites in the Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, retiring in 1984. (Photo courtesy of B. Kramer). (Author: silvia)