It has been very quiet on the blog front for a while, there has been a reason for this which will be explained at a later stage; but we are back with some great news (for a change).
e-Rocks seller Jason Smith, better known as Bucket of Holes Minerals, has had a mineral named after him!
Back in early April the announcement slipped out onto Facebook, that the new structure type phosphate mineral; Mn2+4ZnAl(PO4)4(OH)(H2O)7•3.5H2O is going to be named Jasonsmithite.
The announcement was posted on the Bucket of Holes page on Facebook by Jason.
| I am pleased, and very honored to present to you jasonsmithite, a new species that I discovered in 2018 and has been named after me. This is the greatest privilege I can imagine because minerals are what I love, and I get to work with them for a living. The last two years have been amazing for new discovery and you can’t fathom how thrilled and yet humbled I am by this. The crystals are very small, most times much less than 1mm in size, and very few samples were found. |
It should be stated that the locality of discovery is from the East Dumps at the Foote Mine, Cleveland County, North Carolina, not too far from Jason's home and where he has developed an interest and expertise in the phosphate minerals discovered there.
Jason is a very keen collector and has recently discovered an amazing array of secondary minerals within Redmond Mine, Waterville Lake, Haywood County also in North Carolina.
It was very really great to read Jason's own public response to the announcement via his own timeline;
|
I still remember the christmas morning when I was 7 years old, and got my first book about minerals. I didn’t care about the toys, the candy or anything else. I read that book front to back several times over the next few weeks and it changed my life forever.
I remember seeing some of the strange mineral names and wondering who these people were that they were named after, and what they were like.
Fast forward to today, and I cannot believe that some kid may see my name in the future and wonder who I am. I get to do what I love for a living and it is the greatest privilege to be honored for doing so. I’m stoked and tripped out that jasonsmithite, something I found, is now a permanent part of the earth’s scientific history.
|
It is also a privilege for e-Rocks to be hosting what is thought to be the first ever offering of this mineral online. There certainly are not many photographs to see online at the moment!
The specimen and other information is viewable via the links below
