American Mineralogist最新文献

{"title":"Crystal-chemical variations of celadonite in relation to glauconite","authors":"Jongkyu Park, Il-Mo Kang, Sung Man Seo, Jaehwan Kim, Sang‐Gun No, Seungbin Seo, Jiyeon Joo","doi":"10.2138/am-2025-9787","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9787","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The distinction between celadonite and glauconite remains controversial due to their crystal-chemical similarity, their occurrence in various environments, and their frequent association in mixtures with other phases. Using celadonite from the Janggi area (SE Korea), we report its X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM)–energy-dispersive spectrometry (EDS) characteristics and compare it with previously reported celadonite and glauconite to clarify their similarities and differences. A series of concentration steps for the Janggi celadonite was monitored using XRD patterns, Rietveld refinement, and compositional characteristics. Celadonite from this area is classified as celadonite-aluminoceladonite with unit-cell parameters of a = 5.233–5.241 Å, b = 9.042–9.058 Å, c = 10.105–10.145 Å, β = 100.666–100.773°, and V = 469.824–473.155 Å3. The compositional variation of celadonite can be explained by a three-site heterovalent substitution of Aliv3+ivSi−14+vi(Fetotal3+,Al3+)1.58Mgvi−1.52+Naxii+0.25+Kxii−1+. Here, we: (1) confirm that ivAl3+ serves as a simple yet robust first-order criterion to distinguish celadonite [<0.2 per half formula unit (phfu)] from glauconite (>0.2 phfu); (2) find that celadonite accommodates the misfit between tetrahedral and octahedral sheets in a different style from that of glauconite due to the wide range of ionic sizes among the octahedral cations; (3) predict that celadonite may have a broader range of b-axis variations than previously recognized; and (4) suggest that the key differences lie in the octahedral cation composition, substitution trends, charge distribution, and misfit accommodation styles and unit-cell parameters. These findings suggest that the distinction between celadonite and glauconite should be made by crystal-chemical differences rather than their occurrence modes. Therefore, using these minerals as indicators for paleoenvironmental reconstruction may be misleading.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"111 4","pages":"671-684"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-pdf/doi/10.2138/am-2025-9787/7343821/9787seopreprint.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147911212","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fe-Ti vs. Fe-Fe charge transfers: A comprehensive review and its applications in minerals and glasses","authors":"Maxence Vigier, Helen F Evans, George R. Rossman, Stéphane Jobic, Emmanuel Fritsch","doi":"10.2138/am-2025-9835","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9835","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Iron-titanium (Fe-Ti) charge transfer is mentioned in numerous articles as the source of the coloration of many natural minerals and some manufactured materials, but no global review of this phenomenon has been provided so far. Iron and titanium are ubiquitous in nature and are often found in the same material as Fe2+ and Fe3+, and Ti4+ (more rarely Ti3+). When Fe and Ti ions are in close geometric proximity in an oxide or (alumino)silicate structure, charge transfer can occur between the two ions, even though their concentration might be below 100 ppm. This results in a variety of absorption features that contribute to the color of minerals. A debate remains on the exact nature of Fe/Ti electronic transition, i.e., Fe2+ + Ti4+ → Fe3+ + Ti3+ or the reverse, but solving this issue is not within the scope of the present work. Ascertaining a metal-metal charge transfer is often not straightforward. This review compiles existing knowledge on Fe-Ti charge transfer in both crystalline and amorphous materials and identifies several key characteristics in more than 40 different materials. A charge transfer is associated with broad, intense, optical absorption bands that decrease in intensity at elevated temperatures. It is also strongly pleochroic in non-isotropic materials. Until now, Fe-Ti charge transfer transitions have been primarily described in the 2.25 to 3.1 eV range, corresponding to yellow to orange to brown colors, with notable exceptions such as blue sapphire or kyanite, and green andalusite. This review suggests that Fe-Ti charge transfer can occur across the entire visible spectrum, and the position of the absorption band correlates with the Fe-Ti interatomic distance. This correlation highlights the presence of multiple crystallographic sites for both Fe and Ti in many oxides, leading to multiple Fe-Ti bands within these materials (e.g., sapphire, ilmenite, pseudobrookite). Finally, the use of metal-metal distances is suggested to differentiate this heteronuclear Fe-Ti charge transfer from the common homonuclear charge transfer Fe2+-Fe3+.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"111 4","pages":"567-582"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-pdf/doi/10.2138/am-2025-9835/7332656/9835vigierpreprint.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147914490","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Uncovering the mineral assemblages of six major gold deposit types: A machine learning approach to big data analytics of a global mineralogical database","authors":"Bin Wang, Renguang Zuo, Oliver P. Kreuzer","doi":"10.2138/am-2025-9777","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9777","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Identifying mineral assemblages is crucial for developing a better understanding of ore genesis and improving mineral exploration efficiency. Traditional geological methods have provided significant insights into the classification of the many different gold deposit types and their genesis, but they typically occur at the deposit to thin section scale and focus on small, local data sets. This study developed a data-driven approach, leveraging machine learning and big data to determine the characteristic mineral assemblages of six globally significant gold deposit types: orogenic, epithermal, porphyry, Carlin, iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG), and volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS). We utilized association rule mining (ARM) with an improved Apriori algorithm, which constrains rules consequent to deposit types, on a global database of 454 gold deposits, aiming to unravel the characteristic mineral assemblages of six of the world’s most economically significant gold deposit types. Visualization of the rule set through bipartite and unipartite networks revealed distinct mineral-to-gold deposit relationships. This study also showed that a machine learning approach to big data analytics of a global mineralogical database can detect both known and as-of-yet-unrecognized mineral associations. As such, our approach, which links geology and big data, offers new opportunities for mineral exploration targeting and gold deposit research.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"111 3","pages":"345-359"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-08-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-pdf/doi/10.2138/am-2025-9777/7319772/9777zuopreprint.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147905297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Laboratory synthesis, spectroscopic characteristics, and thermal behavior of phoxite","authors":"Wenxi Chen, Xiaohui Fu, Zhongchen Wu, Jiang Zhang, Guobin Jin, Lingxi Zhang, Wang Liu","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-9463","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-9463","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Phoxite, (NH4)2Mg2(C2O4)(HPO4)2·4H2O, was initially discovered in 1977 and then confirmed in 2018. It is the first mineral known to contain both phosphate and oxalate groups. Phoxite has only been found so far, in the Petrogale Cave, Western Australia, and Rowley mine, Arizona, U.S.A. In this work, we synthesized phoxite using oxammite and newberyite as precursors under different relative humidity conditions. Then, a systematic spectral characterization of this mineral was performed using Raman spectroscopy, mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy, and visible-near infrared (VNIR) spectroscopy. The obtained spectra are compared with those of other oxalates, hydrated sulfates, and carbonates to determine the diagnostic spectral characteristics of phoxite. In addition, the thermal behavior of phoxite during pyrolysis was investigated using evolved gas analysis (EGA), thermogravimetry (TG), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Our results indicate that phoxite may be a potential biomarker on Earth and an indicator of a warm and humid environment. The results may also serve as the spectral database for the identification of phoxite within the habitable environment on Earth and even other planets.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"110 10","pages":"1658-1666"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147916169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research","authors":"Jolyon Ralph, David Von Bargen, Pavel Martynov, Jiyin Zhang, Xiang Que, Anirudh Prabhu, Shaunna M. Morrison, Wenjia Li, Weilin Chen, Xiaogang Ma","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-9486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-9486","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The mindat.org website (Mindat) has been operating since October 2000 as a free, crowd-sourced, and expert-curated database particularly focused on mineral species and their occurrences worldwide. The project has transformed from a hobbyist site in the beginning into a resource that has found use in various scientific research projects and educational programs. Together with other open data resources, Mindat has helped accelerate scientific discoveries in many fields, such as mineral evolution, mineral ecology, and the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. Recently, through open data efforts, machine interfaces and software packages have been established to enable flexible data discovery and download from Mindat. We assume that the data access and usage will further scale up in the next years. Although Mindat is curated by a team of geoscience and database experts across the world, the crowd-sourced records in Mindat possess some bias. In this paper, we first present an overview of the primary data subjects in Mindat and then give extensive details about the characteristics and partiality of three of the most popular data subjects: locality, mineral species, and mineral occurrence. In the discussion, we also give an outlook on appropriate data usage and future extension of data records. We hope users can obtain a more comprehensive view of the Mindat database through this paper and thus better plan their data use. We also hope more people will be inspired to contribute to the data curation work to make Mindat a sustained data ecosystem for geoscience research.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"110 6","pages":"833-844"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147922672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cathodoluminescence textures and trace elements in quartz: Constraints on Ag mineralization in adularia-sericite epithermal systems","authors":"Shen Gao, Xinyu Zou, A. H. Hofstra, Liangliang Huang, Haijun Yang, Kezhang Qin, Erin E. Marsh, Kaixuan Hui, Jing Xu, Le Wang, Zhenzhen Li, Junxing Zhao, Ri Han, Guangming Li","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-9415","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-9415","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Quartz chemistry is important for revealing fluid sources and evolution in hydrothermal deposits, but such information is lacking for many epithermal systems and deposit types. To investigate quartz chemistry in this system further, we collected representative samples of quartz from adularia-sericite epithermal Ag deposits in China and determined their chemical compositions. In adularia-sericite epithermal Ag-bearing systems, magmatic quartz from porphyry intrusions and host subvolcanic rocks displays SEM-CL spectral peaks at 360 and 415 nm and exhibits homogenous CL or weak zonal textures (alternating growth zones within individual quartz crystals). Trace elements in magmatic quartz have the lowest Sb concentrations (median = 0.1 ppm; n = 80). Hydrothermal quartz can be classified into type I and type II by CL false color and CL spectral peaks. Hydrothermal type I quartz has spectral peaks at 360 and 415 nm; it exhibits zonal or sector textures and is associated with base metal sulfides and minor Ag mineralization. Such hydrothermal type I quartz has low Sb concentrations (median = 4.5 ppm; n = 839), contains liquid-rich fluid inclusions, and is formed by cooling. The cooling trend is indicated by a positive correlation between the concentrations of Sb and Al, as well as between Li and Al. Hydrothermal type I quartz has an Fe center by electron spin resonance, whereas other centers are missing or weak at room temperature. In general, hydrothermal type II quartz mantles type I quartz. Hydrothermal type II quartz has an ultrahigh-intensity peak (by several orders of magnitude) at 580 nm, zonal textures, and is associated with abundant Ag mineralization. Hydrothermal type II quartz has the highest Sb concentrations (median = 71ppm; n = 185), which remain constant as Al decreases on an Sb vs. Al plot. This quartz has colloform, bladed, or zonal textures and contains coexisting liquid- and vapor-rich fluid inclusions indicative of boiling. Additionally, this quartz has a significantly higher E’1 center intensity, suggesting a high concentration of oxygen vacancies associated with rapid crystallization. The mineral paragenesis, analytical results, and geochemical models show that, in these Ag-bearing epithermal systems, hydrothermal type I quartz associated with base metal sulfides precipitated during cooling, whereas subsequent growth-zoned hydrothermal type II quartz with high Sb concentrations and Ag-minerals precipitated during boiling. These results suggest that the CL texture and spectra, trace elements, and electron spin resonance data of quartz could identify veins with potential for Ag mineralization in epithermal systems.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"110 6","pages":"866-885"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-10-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147910271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Quartz texture and the chemical composition fingerprint of ore-forming fluid evolution at the Bilihe porphyry Au deposit, NE China","authors":"Jingxin Hong, Degao Zhai, Manuel Keith","doi":"10.2138/am-2022-8840","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2022-8840","url":null,"abstract":"Quartz is widely distributed in various magmatic-hydrothermal systems and shows variable textures and trace element contents in multiple generations, enabling quartz to serve as a robust tracer for monitoring hydrothermal fluid evolution. This study demonstrates that integrated high-resolution SEM-CL textures and trace element data of quartz can be used to constrain physicochemical fluid conditions and trace the genesis of quartz in porphyry ore-forming systems. The Bilihe deposit is a gold-only porphyry deposit located in the Central Asian orogenic belt, NE China. Four quartz generations were distinguished following a temporal sequence from early-stage dendritic quartz, unidirectional solidification textured quartz (UST quartz), gray banded vein quartz (BQ), to late-stage white calcite vein quartz (CQ), with the Au precipitation being mostly related to dendritic quartz, UST quartz, and BQ. The well-preserved dendritic quartz with sector-zoned CL intensities and euhedral oscillatory growth zones crystallized rapidly during the late magmatic stage. The relatively low Al contents of dendritic quartz were interpreted to be related to contemporaneous feldspar or mica crystallization, while the high-Ti contents indicate high-crystallization temperatures (~750 °C). The comb-layered UST quartz displays heterogeneous, patchy luminescence with weak zoning, hosts coeval melt and fluid inclusions, and retains the chemical characteristics of magmatic dendritic quartz. High-Ti and low-Al contents of UST quartz suggest a formation at relatively high temperatures (~700 °C) and high-pH conditions. Three sub-types can be defined for hydrothermal BQ (BQ1, BQ2, and BQ3) based on contrasting CL features and trace element contents. The Al contents increase from BQ1 to BQ2 followed by a drop in BQ3, corresponding to an initial decrease and subsequent increase in fluid acidity. Temperature estimates of BQ decrease from BQ1 (635 °C) to BQ3 (575 °C), which may, however, be disturbed by high growth rates and/or high-TiO2 activities. The CQ typically displays a CL-bright core and CL-dark rim with oscillating CL intensities and is characterized by the lowest Ti and highest Al, Li, and Sb contents compared to the other quartz types, which suggests a deposition from more acidic and lower temperature fluids (~250 °C). Trace element patterns indicate that a coupled Si4+ ↔ (Al3+) + (K+) element exchange vector is applicable to dendritic quartz, UST quartz, and BQ. By contrast, charge-compensated cation substitution of Si4+ ↔ (Al3+, Sb3+) + (Li+, Rb+) is favored for CQ. The comparison with compiled trace element data of quartz from other porphyry Au, Cu, and Mo deposits worldwide suggests that Ti, Al, Li, K, and Ge concentrations, as well as Al/Ti and Ge/Ti ratios, have the potential to discriminate the metal fertility of porphyry mineralization.","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141520671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Acceptance of the 2023 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America","authors":"Georges Calas","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-ap10958","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-ap10958","url":null,"abstract":"Thank you, Gordon, for your generous words, by which you underline the scientific vision, mutual encouragement, and friendship that we have shared over several decades, both in our professional and personal lives. Thank you for your continuous support. I particularly appreciate the fact that it is you who is introducing me to this most prestigious distinction.It is a great honor, totally unexpected, to have been nominated and even more surprising to have been chosen for the prestigious Roebling medal and I am deeply honored. I warmly thank the MSA Council, the members of the Roebling Committee, and all those who nominated me for their confidence. Thank you also to those who have come to this luncheon or attended the Sunday symposium on “Molecular-scale approaches in Mineralogy: bridging the gap from microscopic to macroscopic.” The great talks presented during this meeting demonstrated the topicality of molecular-scale approaches. But also, this honor makes me very humbled, particularly when I look at the list of previous recipients extending back to 1937, including so many legendary people. As a special mention, as I am the second French to be awarded this honor, I should mention Raymond Castaing, the father of the electron microprobe, who was the first French scientist to receive the Roebling Medal in 1977.I have been attracted to minerals since middle school. After being admitted at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Saint-Cloud-Lyon and following Geology classes at the Sorbonne, I began a series of internships in the historical Mineralogy-Crystallography Department of the Sorbonne, founded at the time of Napoleon 1st in 1809 and probably one of the oldest laboratories of France. It is now the Institut de Minéralogie, Physique des Matériaux et Cosmochimie (IMPMC) of Sorbonne Université. At this time, I was fascinated by mineral colors, unfortunately, considered a marginal topic in a laboratory mostly working on crystal structures. I had a bright professor, Hubert Curien (1924–2005), who explained clearly and simply the most recent concepts in crystallography, including crystal physics and point defects. Curien, a life fellow of MSA, occupied the most important positions in the French scientific system, including as Minister of Research and Technology in several French Governments (Calas 2007). After a first work on the superb colors of natural fluorites, I succeeded in a competition to become a high school teacher while obtaining at the same time a research fellow position at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). I took the second possibility with pleasure and started to investigate the structural properties of glasses using the spectroscopic properties of the transition elements they contain. In 1980, I was appointed full professor at University of Paris 7 (now University Paris-Cité). At the same time, a major change in my activities occurred with the access to synchrotron radiation sources. Indeed, the first operational syn","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140827468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Acceptance of the Distinguished Public Service Award of the Mineralogical Society of America for 2024","authors":"Sharon Tahirkheli","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-ap10953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-ap10953","url":null,"abstract":"Mr. President, Colleagues and Friends,I am deeply honored to receive MSA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal. I was completely surprised when I received the email, and my first thought was that there must be some mistake. Being included among such an amazing group of people, including Rod Ewing, Dave Mogk, and Alex Speer, is incredible. I want to express my sincerest thanks to MSA and also to Jon Arthur, my citationist.The reason that I was so convinced that there must be a mistake is because I am not a mineralogist. The focus of my career has been geoscience information in general. It is true that I have worked on some projects that had a focus on mineralogy — for example, with the assistance of Alex Speer, ensuring that all the valid mineral names were included in the most recent edition of the Glossary of Geology, assisting with a project to track down all of the early volumes of American Mineralogist and adding references to all of the articles to GeoRef and, in the early days of my career, briefly editing the weekly seldom-read Minerals Exploration Alert—but these did not seem to qualify as sufficient service to mineralogy. It turns out that for the purpose of this award, MSA wisely chose to define mineralogy very broadly and to include service to national and international geoscience societies. So my long career at the American Geosciences Institute, AGI, seems to fit.A few years ago at a staff retreat, a facilitator asked us to choose the breakfast cereal that best described our thoughts regarding our roles at AGI. This type of exercise usually leaves me floundering for a sensible answer, but this time it was easy – LUCKY CHARMS. I have been extremely lucky and have lived a charmed life that has allowed me to combine my passion for information with the geological sciences.My interest in improving information dissemination started when I was an undergraduate, and I began working on my first research paper. Mystified by the tools provided in the library, I sought help from the reference librarian only to be told that she did not have sufficient expertise in my subject area to provide guidance. The idea that the user needed tools directly accessible to them that they could manipulate themselves started from that moment and has guided much of my career.As luck would have it, I wound up in the perfect place to pursue this passion. AGI was founded to engage in activities that benefit the geological discipline as a whole. The idea of digital information discovery was just beginning to be explored when I joined AGI, and I was lucky to be a part of the initial development of GeoRef.In addition to GeoRef, I was lucky enough to participate in two other projects that stand out as examples of impactful community-based information projects: the revision of the Glossary of Geology and the establishment of the publishing aggregate, GeoScienceWorld. The first project, the revision of the Glossary of Geology is a major undertaking. The 30,000 plus terms th","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140827549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Presentation of the Distinguished Public Service Award of the Mineralogical Society of America for 2024 to Sharon Tahirkheli","authors":"Jonathan Arthur","doi":"10.2138/am-2024-ap10952","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-ap10952","url":null,"abstract":"President, ladies and gentlemen, esteemed colleagues,I am privileged and honored to introduce the recipient of the 2024 MSA Distinguished Public Service Medal, Sharon Tahirkheli. This Medal is awarded by the MSA Council to individuals or organizations who have made important contributions to furthering the vitality of the geological sciences, especially but not necessarily in the fields of mineralogy, geochemistry, petrology, and crystal-lography. It takes no imagination to envision Sharon’s positive impact across these disciplines, and beyond.I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Sharon and working alongside her in various capacities throughout much of my career. Her journey in the realm of service to the geosciences spans more than four decades at the American Geosciences Institute (AGI), where she began as an editor/indexer and entered data into an information system that has been a companion of nearly every geoscience researcher.Sharon’s contributions have left an indelible mark on the geoscience knowledgebase, and her innovative leadership has had far-reaching impacts on the very foundation of geoscience information. It is no wonder that she was honored with the Mary B. Ansari Distinguished Service Award from the Geoscience Information Society, in recognition of her significant contributions to the geoscience information profession. Sharon also served as president of the Geoscience Information Society, further exemplifying her dedication and leadership in the field. No doubt the Society realized the benefits of her forward-thinking vision and wise counsel.Until March of this year, Sharon Tahirkheli held the role of Director of Scholarly Information at AGI, a role that is instrumental in overseeing the development of GeoRef, a monumental international bibliographic geoscience database with 4.3 million references from 140 countries and 60 languages. This database is the cornerstone of geoscience information, encompassing a wide array of resources, including conference papers, journal articles, books, maps, and much more. Sharon’s consistent leadership has not only ensured the growth and sustainability of GeoRef but has also fostered crucial relationships with major publishers and database providers, thereby advancing the accessibility of geoscience information in an ever-evolving digital landscape.Sharon’s dedication goes far beyond GeoRef. She has been at the helm of developing numerous niche databases that cater to the diverse needs of the geoscience community. These include the Geologic Guidebooks of North America, Geological Surveys Database, Scientific Ocean Drilling Bibliographic Database, and the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium Research Database. In a testament to her forward-thinking approach, Sharon has even integrated searchable terms for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals within the GeoRef database, underscoring her unwavering commitment to the excellence and discoverability of geoscience information.As Director","PeriodicalId":7768,"journal":{"name":"American Mineralogist","volume":"45 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2024-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140827550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}