Rock Stars: Alexander Falster and Karen Webber
The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) has announced the approval of two new minerals after University of New Orleans researchers Alexander Falster and Karen Webber. The IMA Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification announced that falsterite and karenwebberite are now accepted by the commission. There are fewer than 5,000 accepted mineral species. This recognition represents one of the highest awards a mineralogist can obtain.
Falsterite, which is a transparent to pale greenish-blue color, was discovered in the Palermo No. 1 pegmatite in North Groton, New Hampshire. The Palermo No. 1 is a mine that is known for its abundance of mineral specimens; more than 140 have been identified at this location. The mineral will be published soon in the American Mineralogist.
Falsterite is named in honor of Alexander Falster, a scientific research technologist in UNO’s earth and environmental sciences department, in recognition for his research on pegmatites, which are a type of igneous rock with exceptionally large crystals. He has been a coauthor on the descriptions of seven new pegmatite minerals. Cotypes, identical material from the same sample containing falsterite, have been deposited in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Karenwebberite is a new phosphate mineral discovered in the Malpensata pegmatite dike in Lombardy, Italy. The mineral is deposited in the collections of the Laboratory of Mineralogy at the University of Liege in Belgium.
Karenwebberite is named in honor of Karen Webber, assistant professor of research in UNO’s earth and environmental sciences department, in recognition for her research on pegmatites. Her publications on the cooling and crystallization dynamics of granitic pegmatites have led to a paradigm shift in the long-held belief that the large crystals in pegmatites required extremely long times to form. Webber’s work has shown that shallow level pegmatites can form in days to years, instead of millions of years.
Falster and Webber earned the same distinction as William Simmons, chair of the UNO earth and environmental sciences department, who had simmonsite named in his honor in 1999.