Ranunculite occurs as gold-yellow nodules. Mean diameter = 0.3 mm. Optically biaxial negative, 2V (calc.) = 56°. γ =1.670, β = 1.664, and α = 1.643. Monoclinic, pseudo-orthorhombic with a = 11.1 Å, b = 17.7 Å, c = 18.0 Å, and β ⋍ 90°. Z = 14. Measured density = 3.4 g/cm3. Calculated density = 3.39 g/cm3. The strongest lines of the X-ray powder pattern are (d, hkl, I): 9.00, 002–020 (100), 3.133, 330 (80), 470, 202–220 (50), 2.978, 006–060 (40), and 1.850, 600 (40). Chemical analysis by electron microprobe: Al2O3 9.9%, UO3 54.5%, P2O5 13.2%, H2O by thermogravimetry 20.3%. Formula: AlH(UO2)(PO4)(OH)3 · 4H2O. Ranunculite occurs at Kobokobo, Kivu, Zaïre, in pegmatitic rocks. The name after the colour (ranunculus = buttercup).

In the UK, radioactive wastes currently planned for disposal in a geological disposal facility (GDF) include intermediate level waste, some low level waste and high level waste. Disposal of other materials, including spent fuel, uranium and plutonium is also being evaluated to inform the safety case for a GDF, if such materials were to be classified as wastes in the future. This paper describes the generic safety functions through which waste packages can contribute to the safety case of a GDF in the UK. It describes the engineering approach used or envisaged, in the UK and internationally, to ensure that waste packages retain their safety functions for the required periods of time and summarizes the scientific basis underpinning the current understanding of relevant evolution processes. Where gaps in the knowledge exist, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Radioactive Waste Management Directorate has identified specific research activities needed to close out such gaps to a level of maturity sufficient for this stage of the disposal programme (generic). This paper describes the latest results from their R&D programme and presents a summary of the research activities planned to meet the current needs of the disposal programme with specific reference to the topics of package evolution and criticality safety.

While studying some of the early works on minerals I came across an obvious difficulty: several minerals, amongst which lapis-lazuli is the most startling, are described in Latin as flavus, yellow or flaxen-coloured, not blue. This error has been copied into a book in English. The solution is less obvious than the difficulty, and it may therefore be worth while to put it on record for other workers on similar lines.

An attempt is made to systematize the nomenclature of the calciferous and alkali amphiboles. The compositions of end-members can be plotted on a simple diagram, which can also be used to display the affinities of the naturally occurring minerals after deriving a basic atomic formula according to the rules given. The composition of an amphibole can in some cases be expressed quantitatively in terms of solid solution of two or three pure end-members.

A Specimen in the University Museum consists of black tetrahedral blende, exhibiting perfect metallic lustre; indeed, the brilliant steely cleavage surfaces of the mineral and its metallic tarnish raised a doubt whether it could really be blende; but in very thin fragments viewed by transmitted light it is seen to be brown in colour.

The phonolites which are found in the volcanic region of Dunedin, New Zealand, are of a varied character. Some of them are of ordinary types, but others are nephelinitoid, and some of them have sodalite in abundance. Besides the phonolites, there are trachydolerites, some of which also contain sodalite as well as nepheline. There is also an abundance of tinguaites, in all of which nepheline is distinct and sometimes sodalite as well. All petrologists who have worked in this region are therefore perfectly familiar with the minerals sodalite and nepheline in many different associations and conditions.

Spring and stream waters from the San Antonio de los Cobres area in NW Argentina have high concentrations of arsenic (As) (151—9490 μg l-1), of which AsV varies widely (6—~100% of total As). Arsenic concentrations correlate with Na, K, Cl, HCO3, B and Li, which are high in the spring waters and are typical of geothermal areas world-wide. Springs near San Antonio supply large amounts of As to the Rio San Antonio de los Cobres (up to 1180 μg l-1), but these concentrations decline to 400 μg l-1 within 10 km of the spring inputs, due to dilution and mineral precipitation.

Tapiaite (IMA2014-024), Ca5Al2(AsO4)4(OH)4·12H2O, is a new mineral from the Jote mine, Tierra Amarilla, Copiapó Province, Atacama, Chile. The mineral is a late-stage, low-temperature, secondary mineral occurring with conichalcite, joteite, mansfieldite, pharmacoalumite, pharmacosiderite and scorodite in narrow seams and vughs in the oxidized upper portion of a hydrothermal sulfide vein hosted by volcanoclastic rocks. Crystals occur as colourless blades, flattened on {101} and elongated and striated along [010], up to ∼0.5 mm long, and exhibiting the forms {101}, {101} and {111}. The blades are commonly intergrown in subparallel bundles and less commonly in sprays. The mineral is transparent and has a white streak and vitreous lustre. The Mohs hardness is estimated to be between 2 and 3, the tenacity is brittle, and the fracture is splintery. It has two perfect cleavages on {101} and {101}. The calculated density based on the empirical formula is 2.681 g cm–3. It is optically biaxial (+) with α = 1.579(1), β = 1.588(1), γ = 1.610(1) (white light), 2Vmeas = 66(2)° and 2Vcalc = 66°. The mineral exhibits no dispersion. The optical orientation is X ≈ [101]; Y = b, Z ≈ [101]. The electron-microprobe analyses (average of five) provided: Na2O 0.09, CaO 24.96, CuO 0.73, Al2O3 10.08, Fe2O3 0.19, As2O5 40.98, Sb2O5 0.09, H2 O 23.46 (structure), total 100.58 wt.%. In terms of the structure, the empirical formula (based on 32 O a.p.f.u.) is (Ca4.83Cu0.102+Na0.03)Σ4.96(Al2.14Fe0.033+)Σ2.17[(As3.875+Sb0.015+)Σ3.88O16][(OH)3.76(H2O)0.24]Σ4(H2O)10·2H2O. The mineral is easily soluble in RT dilute HCl. Tapiaite is monoclinic, P21/n, with unit-cell parameters a = 16.016(1), b = 5.7781(3), c = 16.341(1) Å, β = 116.704(8)°, V = 1350.9(2) Å3 and Z = 2. The eight strongest lines in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern are [dobs Å(I)(hkl)]: 13.91(100)(101), 7.23(17)(200,002), 5.39(22)(110,011), 4.64(33)(112,211,303), 3.952(42)(113,311,213), 3.290(35)(214,412,114,411), 2.823(39)(303,315) and 2.753(15)(513,115,121,511). The structure of tapiaite (R1 = 5.37% for 1733 Fo > 4σF) contains Al(AsO4)(OH)2 chains of octahedra and tetrahedra that are topologically identical to the chain in the structure of linarite. CaO8 polyhedra condense to the chains, forming columns, which are decorated with additional peripheral AsO4 tetrahedra. The CaO8 polyhedra in adjacent columns link to one another by corner-sharing to form thick layers parallel to {101} and the peripheral AsO4 tetrahedra link to CaO6 octahedra in the interlayer region, resulting in a framework structure.

Many examples of the hydrothermal synthesis of minerals are scattered throughout mineralogical literature. The present paper has been written to bring to the attention of mineralogists the fact that such hydrothermal syntheses are occurring continually in industrial boilers, particularly when control of water softening procedure is not completely efficient.

In 1938 large crystals of almandine garnet were collected by the writer from a cutting excavated during road-widening operations, on the main Huntly—Keith road, near Cairnie church, about 4½ miles from Huntly. In view of their exceptional size and excellent crystal form, it is felt that the occurrence is worth recording. Garnet crystals of comparable size have been recorded by Heddle from several localities. The Cairnie crystals, considering their size and excellent form, must rank with the finest recorded from Scotland.

The rocks at this cutting are coarsely banded garnet-biotite-sillimanite-gneisses with abundant quartz, oligoclase, orthoclase, and biotite, subordinate muscovite, and accessory magnetite, apatite, and zircon. Sillimanite is sporadic in occurrence, forming elongated colourless prisms up to 2 mm. across. The biotite-rich bands generally contain only small garnets, if any, but garnet is very abundant in bands rich in quartz and felspars, and often forms a large part of the rock.

Arhbarite was described in 1982 as a new copper arsenate, Cu2(OH)AsO4·6H2O, from the Arhbar mine, Morocco. Due to the very small grain size no crystallographic data other than the X-ray powder diffraction data could be given. Reinvestigation of the type material and of new finds from the El Guanaco mine, Chile, is based on Rietveld refinement of X-ray powder data, electron microprobe investigations, optical studies as well as infrared and Raman spectra. The main results are: (1) arhbarite has the ideal formula Cu2Mg(AsO4)(OH)3 with magnesium oxide as an additional constituent and (2) arhbarite is isotypic with gilmarite, Cu3(AsO4)(OH)3. Arhbarite is triclinic, space group P1 (no. 1), unit-cell parameters (type material; refined from powder data) a= 5.315(4), b= 5.978(6), c= 5.030(6)Å, α = 113.58(6), β = 97.14(7), γ = 89.30(8)°, V= 145.2(1)Å3, Z= 1. Microprobe analyses of the type material gave MgO 10.20, CuO 47.46, NiO 0.20, CoO 0.24, As2O5 33.85, SiO2 0.10, H2O 7.58 (calc.), total 99.63 wt.%. The empirical formula is Cu1.98(Mg0.88Cu0.09Ni0.01Co0.01)S0.99(AsO4)1.02(OH)2.92, based on 7 O atoms. The Chilean arhbarite shows a slightly higher Cu content than the type material; it has the formula Cu1.99(Mg0.73Cu0.25Zn0.01)∑0.99[(AsO4)1.01(SiO4)0.01]∑1.02(OH)2.92. The formal redefinition of arhbarite has been approved by the CNMMN of the IMA.

Flexible mineral fibres appear to have been well known to the Greeks, who spun them into thread, which they wove into cloth or employed as wicks for lamps.

Pausanias, who lived in the second century of the present era, tells us that Kallimachos made for the statue of Minerva in the Acropolis at Athens a lamp of gold, the wick of which was of ‘karpasiau flax’, which he states is the only flax inconsumable by fire. Some have interpreted the words ‘karpasian flax’,——as meaning mineral flax from the Karpasos, the north-eastern promontory of Cyprus, but apart from the fact that there is no record of the occurrence of asbestiform minerals in that locality, it seems clear that the word is derived from (feminine in the singular, but neuter in the plural ), which properly signifies cotton, being identical with the Sanskrit , though it has been used for a fine variety of flax produced in Spain, as well as for other European plants.