Based on my experience, the fact cummingtonite is named after a small
Massachusetts village does not at all impede its ability to provide
amusement for students being introduced to it for the first time (much
as I myself was amused as a student).
John
PS: I also miss crossite. The IMA may promote unpopular mineral
nomenclature, but it is the journal editors/editorial boards that
enforce the use of mineral nomenclatures (and also "standard" mineral
abbreviations, I might add). Without enforcement, unpopular "law"
becomes just a suggestion.
On 13 Feb2010, at 15:23, N.B.W.Harris wrote:
> No doubt we shall shortly be reminded that the excellent mineral
> cummingtonite was named after some obscure village or fusty
> professor thus extinguishing the innocent amusement of generations
> of mineralogists.
>
> Nigel
>
> Professor of Tectonics
> Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
> Open University
> Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
>
> On Saturday13 Feb 2010, at 15:12, Robert Tracy wrote:
>
> Bruce et al.:
>
> Speaking of 19th-C nomenclatural senses of humor (or maybe spite),
> my geobiologist friends like to tell of another nomenclature story
> (which may or may not be apocryphal) in which people and properties
> could be combined humorously - or otherwise - in naming something.
>
> The eminent dinosaur explorer of the late 19th C (and discoverer of
> Brontosaurus), O.C. Marsh of Yale, proposed the name "coprolites"
> for the fossilized bits of dinosaur (and other beast) excreta
> occasionally found in rocks. Makes sense, based on the Greek root
> for excrement. But it also happens that Marsh's great vertebrate
> paleontology competitor and even nemesis was Edward Drinker Cope of
> the American Museum of Natural History. The paleo people
> (particularly the Yale ones) have always sworn that Marsh chose the
> name as a happily conjoint recognition of what the object was and an
> insult aimed at Cope.
>
> Take it for what it's worth. But I do agree with Bruce that we could
> all benefit from a bit more of senses of both humor and perspective
> in funding, reviewing and editorial decisions these days.
>
> Bob
>
> Bruce Yardley wrote:
>
> Shock! Horror! 19th century mineralogist had a sense of humour! So
> its not just the ability to do optics that is being lost these days?
>
> Bruce
>
>
> Professor Bruce Yardley
> School of Earth and Environment
> University of Leeds
> Leeds LS2 9JT
> UK
> Tel. +44 (0)113 343 5227
> ________________________________
> From: Metamorphic Studies Group [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >] On Behalf Of Treiman, Allan [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >]
> Sent: 12 February 2010 19:27
> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]
> >
> Subject: Re: IMA mineral nomenclature
>
> I know nothing of Charles Palache. But it seems inconceivable that a
> mineral with crossed extinction (a property that would have been far
> more
> familiar then than it is now) could be named for Whitman Cross
> by accident.
>
> Allan Treiman
>
> Allan H. Treiman
> Associate Director for Science
> Lunar and Planetary Institute
> 3600 Bay Area Boulevard
> Houston TX 77058-1113
> 281-486-2117
>
> On 2/12/10 1:05 PM, "Robert Tracy" <[log in to unmask]><mailto:[log in to unmask]
> > wrote:
>
> Kees,
>
> According to both Mindat and Webmineral, this is indeed the case:
> Charles Palache of Harvard named the sodic amphibole mineral after
> Whitman Cross of the USGS in 1894, and Whitman Cross is among J.P.
> Iddings, Louis V. Pirsson and Harry Washington as originators of the
> CIPW norm calculation.
>
> Bob T.
>
> Linthout wrote:
> At 18:01 12/02/2010, Mogk, David wrote:
>
> thus the name “crossite” as the optic orientation has been crossed.
>
> What's in a name?
> I always thought crossite was named was after CROSS, of the CIPW
> system.
>
> Kees
>
>
>
> --
> Dr. Robert J. Tracy
> Department of Geosciences
> 5064 Derring Hall
> Virginia Tech
> Blacksburg VA 24061-0420
>
> Office Phone: 540-231-5980
> Fax: 540-231-3386
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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