In a new study, researchers in Russia reveal they have discovered an unusual mineral that has never been recorded by scientists before.
It is a blue and green crystalline substance . The team called Petrovite .
The mineral is found in the far east of Russia, atop the Tolbachik volcano in the Kamchatka peninsula.
The history of Tolbachik’s eruption dates back thousands of years, but in recent times, two notable events have emerged: the 1975–1976 Tolbachik rift eruption and the next one in 2012– two thousand and thirteen.
Petrovite has just been discovered by scientists.
The eruption force of the first event tore apart countless cones in the volcanic population, opening up rocky terrain from which was discovered a circuit of crater vents and never-before-seen minerals. anywhere else.
In total, the Tolbachik volcano has 130 types of local minerals identified here for the first time, the latest of which is Petrovite, a sulphate mineral shaped like clusters of blue crystals.
The specimen studied here was discovered in 2000 and stored for later analysis. It may have been a long time, but that analysis now shows that the brilliant blue mineral exhibits distinctive molecular signatures rarely seen before.
The copper atom in Petrovite’s crystal structure has an unusual and very rare combination of seven oxygen atoms. Such coordination is characteristic of only a few compounds, as well as that of saranchinaite , explains study leader, crystallographer Stanislav Filatov from the University of St Petersburg.
Saranchinaite, identified a few years ago by another group in St Petersburg, has also been discovered at Tolbachik. Like Petrovite, it also has striking colors.
In the case of Petrovite, the mineral is thought to crystallize through direct precipitation from volcanic gas, which takes the form of a blue crystalline shell enclosing fine volcanic debris. At the chemical level, Petrovite represents a new type of crystal structure.
Notably, Petrovite’s molecular framework exhibits interconnected pathways that may allow sodium ions to move through the structure. The team thinks this could lead to important applications in materials science.