radioactive mineral photos.. post them!!

I will apologize upfront for these pictures. They were all taken at the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum for Natural History. They were behind thick leaded glass in a crowded room. They are not studio quality - I understand this, but hope you enjoy them anyway

















Bob
(I have 400+ more Smithsonian mineral pictures to estimate the size of and upload)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2012 04:07PM by Jessica and Robert Simonoff.

Hi all,
after some pause at mindat finally i have some time to follow the discussion threads again. Here one of my few radioactives that i kept in the collection - uranocircite from the type locality:




cheers
Roger

Hi all,

Superb specimens. Should dig out my lead boxes too and start photographing again.

Jessica and Robert. The francevillite is from this locality [www.mindat.org]

Concerning the becquerelite, the specimens is most probably uranophane and the most possible locality is Musonoi.
They all came from the dump 269 ? at Musonoi where all the uranium minerals from the area where piled up.
The same with the kamotoite and related species. It needed Sioux techniques to know exactly where the specimens came from. Mashamba is not very rich in uranium minerals, except for carnotite and meta-tyuyamunite.
It must also been said that Musonoi, Kamoto, Kolwezi, KOV and Mashamba are all in a few 100 meters the one from the other and that it's very difficult to know where one mine starts and the other ends.
If you should know how many minerals on display in museums are mislabeled, you should be surprised.
Museums never collect at mines and buy specimens from dealer who bought them from other collectors or local digger. They are specialised in dissimulating the true locality to avoid that other diggers steal their spot.

I hope this helps.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

PS: the metatorbernite is from Musonoi too and not from Shinkolobwe.

I hope this helps.

Paul.

Fixes made - thanks Paul!

Bob

Johannite - Jáchymov, Czech Republic; 5x5 cm, largest ball 4 mm

Bob, great photography! all those specimens look safer than asbestos ;)

Roger, Spectacular color on your uranocircite!

Paul, we're looking forward to seeing your uraninites.

-Dean Allum

My addition to this "Radioactive" post (it's not brilliant, but I love the colours):




Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2012 08:09PM by Matt Wall.

Matt,
Here are a couple Mindat links I saved to help with embedding pictures in messages.

Link 1

Link 2

Hope this helps!

Thanks Jim for that, I think I have done it now. =)
Kind regards,
Matt. =)

Very nice, Matt. I could feel the radiation before, I just couldn't see it.

Haha! Thanks for your help!
Kind regards,
Matt. =)

Phosphuranylite and ianthinite, Arcu su Linnarbu, Sardinia, Italy.

[www.mindat.org]
[www.mindat.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2012 08:23AM by Antonio Gamboni.

A comment to those made on July 27 ....

Impossible to differentiate an uranium mica with the naked eye and simply on the color ...
All this is well known ...
How to differentiate the (meta) torbernite of (meta) zeunerite, uranocircite of the autunite without analysis???
Simply impossible!!!
Especially because in these species the cations have an unfortunate tendency to form series with all possible intermediates...
Very experienced eyes have made ​​mistakes ...
It is the same with the red oxides of uranium ....


Have a nice day.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2012 01:09PM by Luc Vandenberghe.

The presence or absence of arsenic in a determined mineral deposit may be an indicator to distinguish from the torbernite zeunerite.
The place of origin is important.

Autunite from France.

Nevertheless wonderful pictures and nice specimens! Thanks everyone for showing them!

In KOV, Katanga, DR of Congo, we can find torbernite & zeunerite...
Except a very experienced eye and taking the sample in hand can do, perhaps the difference....

I agree with you Paul.

See you on September, 8.

Take care

Reiner Mielke stated in a posting following a picture of Melanocerite-(Ce) posted by Jay Buscio that Melanocerite-(Ce) should now be considered the same as Tritomite-(Ce):

"Also melanocerite is now the same as tritomite. If you go to [pubsites.uws.edu.au] and click on "IMA Reports" you will find a link to "Nomenclature of the apatite supergroup minerals: Eur. J. Min., 22 (2010),163-179." you will see in the abstract, point 3. what I am refering to. "

Melanocerite(Ce) is still listed as an IMA.approved mineral in the listing on the official IMA website and this reference is probably to a report that needs a formal IMA-decision to affect the status of Melanocerite-(Ce).

Enclosed a picture of Melanocerite-(Ce) (FOV 3 cm) from the type locality at Kjeøya, Barkevik, Langesundsfjorden, Norway.

Knut

Melanocerite-(Ce), Kjeøya, Barkevik area, Langesundsfjorden, Vestfold, Norway	© Knut Eldjarn

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2012 10:20AM by Rock Currier.