A completely new mineral was found hidden inside a volcano – BGR

• A new mineral has been discovered near a volcano in Russia.
• Researchers found the bright bluish-green mineral near the Tolbachik volcano in Russia, and it is one of hundreds of new minerals found in the same area.
• The mineral, called petrovite, looks almost otherworldly thanks to its bright, eye-catching color.

Volcanoes are great. Well, I mean, as long as you watch them from a distance and they don’t pose an immediate threat to your life, they’re pretty neat. They are also as close to visiting the inner workings of the planet as most of us will ever get. The incredible heat generated deep beneath our feet only shows on the surface through these incredible geographical features, and as a new study reveals, they are capable of creating things that science has never seen before.

The new research paper, which was published in Mineralogical magazine, reveals the presence of a completely new mineral that was previously completely unknown. It is called petrovite and is an intense combination of many different elements.

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How LiveScience reports, the new mineral was discovered near Tolbachik volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, and is definitely eye-catching. The mineral is crystalline in nature and boasts an almost otherworldly bright bluish green color. It looks amazing and even a little unnatural, but it has been forged by volcanic activity.

The University of St. Petersburg explains:

The mineral consists of oxygen, sodium sulfur and copper atoms, which form a porous structure. The voids are connected to each other by channels through which relatively small sodium atoms can move. Scientists then determined that the structural type of petrovite is promising for ion conductivity and can be used as a cathode material for sodium ion batteries.

So, the mineral might actually be useful, which is a nice surprise, but there’s a catch. “At the moment, the biggest problem with this use is the small amount of a transition metal – copper – in the crystal structure of the mineral,” Stanislav Filatov, lead author of the research, explains in a statement. “It could be solved by synthesizing a compound with the same structure as petrovite in the laboratory.”

If the discovery of a new mineral sounds exciting to you, then the Kamchatka Peninsula is definitely a place you will want to visit. The place is well known for its abundance of different types of minerals and well over 100 different minerals have been first discovered there. Its vast magma field is the perfect place for scientists to go in search of something they have never seen before and, in the case of petrovite, have found it.

“The mineral is named in honor of Prof Dr Tomas Georgievich Petrov (born 1931) for his contributions to mineralogy and crystallography and, in particular, to the development of technology for the industrial manufacture of malachite jewelry,” note the researchers .

Mike Wehner has been reporting on technology and video games for the past decade, covering the latest news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and the technology of the future. Most recently, Mike worked as a Tech Editor at The Daily Dot and has appeared on USA Today, Time.com, and countless other websites and in print. His love of the news is second only to his addiction to games.