2014 is the International Year of Crystallography (IYCr). We have taken this opportunity to design a quiz, together with the journal Chemie in Unserer Zeit (ChiuZ). The idea is that you guess the name of a mineral with the help of an image and some tips.
This is part four of the quiz series; we will publish a final question in December. Everyone who gives the correct answer before the required date will be put into a draw to win a book published by Wiley-VCH. For each question there will be two lucky book winners. In addition, at the end of the year we will draw one winner from among all the correct answers to receive an iPad.
So contribute, it’s worth it!
We thank Ekkehard Diemann, University of Bielefeld, Germany, who has made this quiz possible by providing the beautiful images and the texts accompanying these quiz sections.
For tips on how to take such pictures by yourself, read his article on Digital Photography in Chemistry.
4th Mineral
Our mineral (pictured above) has a tetragonal crystal structure with the space group I42d. The structure can be derived from the sphalerite (α-ZnS), by doubling the unit cell and replacing the zinc ions alternately with our mineral’s metal ions.
It is an important ore which is found in many places, but is especially common around the Pacific region (South America, USA, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Australia). The mineral is recovered from open-cast mines, leading to one of the biggest man-made holes in the earth’s crust.
What is the name of our mineral?
Send your solution indicating your address before November 22, 2014 to [email protected]
To see the answer:
More on the International Year of Crystallography (IYCr 2014)
Previous Minerals:
- Celestine; answer to Guess the Mineral (3).
- Chrysotile; answer to Guess the Mineral (2).
- Chrome Diopside; answer to Guess the Mineral (1).
