A mineral found a quarter of a century ago in the Glarus Alps has turned out to be a previously unknown species. The discovery of this mineral, called “heimite”, owes a lot to the coronavirus pandemic.
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The rock was found in 1999 by Philippe Roth, a seismologist at the Swiss Seismological Service at the ETHZ, in a deposit in Grosses Chalttal. During the semi-confinement, the scientist took it out of the cellar and studied it under a microscope. He discovered with amazement that this mineral did not resemble anything known, the Swiss Academy of Natural Sciences (SCNAT) wrote on Tuesday.
Supported by Nicolas Meisser, curator at the Cantonal Museum of Natural Sciences (Naturéum) in Lausanne, Mr. Roth then carried out more precise analyzes of the chemical composition and crystal structure. These examinations confirm that it is indeed a new mineral.
A chameleon rock
The two men published an article in the European Journal of Mineralogy. The new mineral species, made of lead, copper, arsenic, oxygen and hydrogen, was named “heimite”, in honor of the Swiss geologist Albert Heim (1849-1937).
The mineral has another characteristic: it changes color when illuminated by an electron beam from a scanning electron microscope, from bottle green to blue. According to SCNAT, such a color change has not been observed for any other mineral. A phenomenon that the two researchers want to analyze more thoroughly.
By examining other private or public collections, hemite was discovered in four other localities in the Swiss Alps. But not only that: it has also been identified in the ancient mines of Laurion, south of Athens, underlines SCNAT.
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