Search Mineralpedia – A Mineral Photo Database and Identification Guide

Named in honor of the very first Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Alekseevick Gagarin. Gagarinite is a rare mineral that occurs “as disseminations, segregations, and in veins and miarolitic cavities within Na-metasomatized alkalic granites and quartz-syenites.” Localities for this rare mineral include in kazakhstan, Russia, Norway, the United States, and a few others. It decomposes in water with most of the sodium going into solution. It is also weakly magnetic.

Ref. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony et al (1995) and MSA at http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/gagarinite-(Y).pdf

Named for Gabrielle Donnay, a former professor and mineralogist at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Gaidonnayite is a rare mineral that occurs in Canada, the United States, Russia, Brazil, and a couple others. At its type locality at Mont Saint-Hilaire, it is found “in miarolitic cavities in nepheline syenite and altered pegmatite dikes in an intrusive alkalic gabbro-syenite complex” and in augite syenite at the mineral’s locality at Narssarssuk in Greenland.  Commonly, Gaidonnayite will fluoresce bright green under shot-wave and long-wave ultraviolet light.

Ref. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony et al (1995) and MSA at http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/gaidonnayite.pdf

Named for the Latin word galena which was given to lead ore or the dross from melted lead. Galena is a common mineral and widespread mineral with thousands of localities worldwide. Noted deposits include in the United States, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, England, Scotland, and Mexico. The most important ore of lead, Galena occurs in many environments including hydrothermal veins, contact metamorphic deposits, pegmatites, limestones, and dolostones.

Ref. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony et al (1995) and MSA at http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/galena.pdf

Named in reference to the galena and bismuth in the composition. Galenobismutite in an uncommon mineral that occurs of hydrothermal origin in localities in Sweden, Austria, Germany, Romania, England, Scotland, Australia, China, the United States, Canada, Bolivia, and from other minor occurrences. Associated minerals include galena, bismuth, cosalite, aikinite, tellurobismuthite, joseite, tetadymite, tetrahedrite, gold, pyrite, and quartz.

Ref. Handbook of Mineralogy, Anthony et al (1995) and MSA at http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/galenobismutite.pdf