Allanite Mineral

2024-01-28T15:47:51
Hey dear Hive community, first of all I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you had a weekend that was full of positive experiences! Today I would like to bring a mineral a little closer and hope you are able to expand your knowledge a little.
Two specimens of the mineral allanite can be seen here and it is also counted among the rare earths and it also defines a group of different epidote minerals. Allanite was first discovered at the beginning of the 19th century by the explorer Carl Ludwig Giesecke (1761 - 1833) who had found the mineral for the first time on one of his travels of discovery in Greenland and a few years later it was named in honor of the British mineralogist Thomas Allan (1777 - 1833). Basically, a distinction is made between the four different varieties allanite-(Y), allanite-(La), allanite-(Ce) and allanite-(Nd) and it can contain up to 30% rare earths and is very interesting for extracting it. It is also of great relevance for research purposes and of course it is also very popular with collectors and almost always contains the radioactive element thorium which was named after the thunderstorm God from the Norse mythology and therefore it is important when you handle it to always pay attention to the right protective measures to prevent complications. If you are more interested in mythology and minerals, I can recommend this article from me here where I have already discussed this interesting topic in more detail. Allanite often contains other radioactive components that can be analyzed with the help of the right tools and the appearance is usually black, but can also vary and take on other dark colors such as brown. The formation can mostly be attributed to volcanic activity and in addition to thorium, I can also be found together with other interesting elements such as titanium, manganese or more.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about minerals! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!
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