Unusual Mineral Name

At first I thought this might be a bit of geological humor. But no. It appears to be quite serious and quite real. It's a mineral named Cummingtonite. So named because it's found in Cummington, Massachusetts. For those interested, its cleavage is good in two directions at 56 and 124 degree angles. Its hardness is 5-6. (via Snark Hunting)

Science Sex/Romance

Posted on Mon Feb 14, 2005


Comments

He he he...
Posted by Charybdis  on  Tue Feb 15, 2005  at  09:05 AM
Cummingtonite is non-pleochroic.
I don't know what that means; I just wanted to use the word "non-pleochroic."
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Tue Feb 15, 2005  at  02:02 PM
Pleochroism is the selective absorbtion of polarized light by doubly refractive coloured crystals, basically what gives the colour we see.
Colourless crystals cannot exhibit pleochroism.
Who says crystalography is boring....
Posted by padego  on  Tue Feb 15, 2005  at  04:55 PM
I'd rather be in a chrysalis.
Posted by stork  on  Tue Feb 15, 2005  at  07:29 PM
where can I get some?
Posted by Darren  on  Thu Feb 17, 2005  at  05:57 AM
we have a saying in the nuclear business, what do you do with virgin poly once its been fluxxed?
Posted by Darren  on  Thu Feb 17, 2005  at  05:58 AM
In addition to Cummington, MA, I wonder if you can find cummingtonite in the vicinities of Climax, AZ, and Intercourse, PA.
Posted by Big Gary C  on  Thu Feb 17, 2005  at  04:24 PM
Here's a whole bunch of weird chemical names:

(Warning NSFW: Many of the items are illustrated with pictures of what the names sound like. Page 1 has both "Arsole" and "Carnallite".)

http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/sillymolecules/sillymols1.htm
Posted by Loren  on  Sat May 13, 2006  at  11:01 PM
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