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• the mineral erionite is a carcinogen, and chronic exposure to this mineral has been linked to excess mortality from mesothelioma in a number of villages in Turkey?
• the mineral athabascaite was discovered in 1949 during a research study of radioactive materials collected from Lake Athabasca in Saskatchewan, Canada?
• the streak of a mineral, the color of the mark it makes when rubbed on a plate, is usually a more consistent identifier than the color of the original mineral?
• the only known source of the mineral Macaulayite in the world is in a quarry at the foot of Bennachie, Aberdeenshire – but it may also be present on Mars?
• when yellow crystals of mosesite, a very rare mineral found in deposits of mercury, are heated to 186 °C (367 °F), they become isotropic?
• the uncommon thorium nesosilicate mineral Huttonite (unit cell pictured) was first discovered in 1950 in New Zealand?
• decades after its discovery in 1955 in Turkey's Bursa Province, bursaite was officially discredited as a mineral in 2006?
• taranakite, a mineral formed from the reaction of clays or aluminous rocks with materials derived from bat or bird guano, was first found in New Zealand's Sugar Loaf Islands in 1865?
• CRISM is a spectrometer on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and will be used to find minerals on the surface of Mars?
• mineralogist George Switzer persuaded Harry Winston to donate the Hope Diamond (pictured) to the Smithsonian Institution, establishing the National Museum of Natural History's gem and mineral collection?
• jerrygibbsite ((Mn,Zn)₉(SiO₄)₄(OH)₂) is a rare mineral of which there are only five known samples in the world?
• rubicline was the first mineral discovered with rubidium as an essential constituent?
• silicosis is a lung disease caused by inhalation of silica, the second most common mineral on earth's crust?
• crystals of Paulingite, a rare zeolite mineral found in vesicles in the basaltic rocks from the Columbia River, form a perfect clear rhombic dodecahedron?

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