EWINGITE AND PADDLEWHEELITE, TWO NEW URANYL CARBONATE MINERALS WITH COMPLEX STRUCTURES

Over the past decade, an average of well over 100 new minerals per year have been discovered and approved by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification of the International Mineralogical Association. Exploration of abandoned mines and re-investigation of samples from classic localities have allowed mineralogists to discover more new minerals in the past decade than any before. Although crystal-chemical studies of synthetic uranium materials have increased exponentially over the same period, recently discovered U minerals that possess remarkably complex atomic arrangements and compositions provide us with a more thorough understanding of the crystal-chemical drivers of uranyl carbonate mineral formation and aqueous behavior of U-CO₃ systems. Nature is our most skilled experimentalist if you know where to look, and new mineral discoveries like ewingite and paddlewheelite can promote technological advancement and foster better nuclear waste stewardship. Looking forward, predictive mineralogy methods and big-data analysis are ever important approaches to understanding human-mineral interactions in our Anthropocene era.