Levinsonite-(Y)

Levinsonite-(Y)
General
Category	Mineral
Formula (repeating unit)	(empirical) Y0.3Nd0.2La0.1Sm0.1Gd0.1Al(SO4)2(C2O4)·12(H2O)
Strunz classification	10.AB.70
Dana classification	50.01.09.03
Crystal system	monoclinic
Identification
Colour	colourless
Crystal habit	prismatic
Fracture	brittle, irregular
Luster	vitreous
Streak	white
Density	2.09

Levinsonite-(Y) is a rare organic mineral named in honor of Alfred A. Levinson (1927-2005), professor of mineralogy at the University of Calgary. It was named in part because of his origination of the internationally used nomenclature for rare-earth minerals, the Levinson modifier, which is a standard in mineralogical nomenclature and allows for the more precise identification and classification of rare-earth minerals.

The type material for Levinsonite-(Y) is kept at the University of Michigan, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Discovery

In 1981, T. Dennis Coskren and Robert J. Lauf began investigating a large number of unusual minerals at the Alum Cave Bluff (ACB), Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA. Coskren and Lauf discovered three new rare-earth element minerals, which have subsequently been named coskrenite-(Ce), levinsonite-(Y), and zugshunstite-(Ce). After submission to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), the naming of Levinsonite-(Y) was approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names and given the IMA number 1996-057.