Teoparazeltsita, new mineral

2002/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Geologia

Researchers at the University of Geneva have found a completely new mineral in the French mines of Roua (near Nice). The new mineral has copper, arsenic and water and its exact chemical composition is Cu3(OH)2As2O7. They have called him Teoparazeltsita in honor of Parazeltso.

The animal and vegetable kingdom has hundreds of thousands of species and it is not so rare to find unknown species. However, in the world of minerals there is not so much variety and rarely one hears an unknown mineral. A mineral is considered new when its physical, optical, chemical composition and atomic structure are different from the others.