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TRINITITE

Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:47 pm
by Stargzer
Marking the 60th anniversary of the first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

trinitite

SYLLABICATION: trin·i·tite

PRONUNCIATION: trĭn'ĭ-tīt'

NOUN: An olive green, glasslike substance formed from the sand melted by the heat that was generated by the first nuclear blast at the New Mexico test site in 1945.

ETYMOLOGY: After the Trinity Site in New Mexico, after Trinity, code name for the first atomic bomb test.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2005 10:14 pm
by hcbowman
The -ite ending makes trinitite sound like a mineral. The same is true for fulgurite, which is the glass-like product of lightning striking sand or certain types of stone.

My question is whether trinitite and fulgurite are minerals. Aren't minerals supposed to be crystalline in structure? And aren't glasses supposed to be amorphous?

Thanks!
--Cliff

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:01 am
by Apoclima
Is there an "-ite" ending word for glass?

Is trinitite a liquid like glass?

Apo

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:17 am
by Stargzer
There are two -ites:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

–ite[sup]1[/sup]

SUFFIX: 1. Native or resident of: New Jerseyite. 2a. Descendant of: Levite. b. Adherent or follower of: Luddite. 3. A part of an organ, body, or bodily part: somite. 4a. Rock; mineral: graphite. b. Fossil: trilobite. 5a. Product: metabolite. b. A commercial product: ebonite.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old French, from Latin -ītēs, -īta, from Greek -ītēs.

–ite[sup]2[/sup]

SUFFIX: A salt or ester of an acid named with an adjective ending in -ous: sulfite.
ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of –ate[sup]2[/sup].


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
I'll go out on a limb and say that the first definition includes glasses as minerals, especially volcanic glasses:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

glass

PRONUNCIATION: glăs

NOUN: 1. Any of a large class of materials with highly variable mechanical and optical properties that solidify from the molten state without crystallization, are typically made by silicates fusing with boric oxide, aluminum oxide, or phosphorus pentoxide, are generally hard, brittle, and transparent or translucent, and are considered to be supercooled liquids rather than true solids. . . .


Actually, your suggestion, fulgurite, references back to -ite[sup]1[/sup]:
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

fulgurite

SYLLABICATION: ful·gu·rite
PRONUNCIATION: fImagel'gyImage-rīt', -gImage-, fŭl'-
NOUN: A slender, usually tubular body of glassy rock produced by lightning striking and then fusing dry sandy soil.
ETYMOLOGY: Latin fulgur, lightning; see fulgurate + –ite[sup]1[/sup].


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
, lightning; see fulgurate + –ite1.


The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:30 am
by tcward
Minerals by class
# Elements Class: The Metals and their alloys and the Nonmetals.
# Sulfides Class: The Sulfides, the Selenides, the Tellurides, the Arsenides, the Antimonides, the Bismuthinides and the Sulfosalts.
# Halides Class: The Fluorides, the Chlorides and the Iodides.
# Oxides Class: The Oxides and the Hydroxides.
# Carbonates Class: The Carbonates, the Nitrates and the Borates.
# Sulfates Class: The Sulfates, the Sulfites, the Chromates, the Molybdates, the Selenates, the Selenites, the Tellurates, the Tellurites and the Tungstates (or the Wolframates).
# Phosphates Class: The Phosphates, the Arsenates, the Vanadates and the Antimonates.
# Silicates Class: The Silicates (the largest class).
# The Organics Class: The "Minerals" composed of organic chemicals!
# The Mineraloids: The "Minerals" that lack crystal structure!

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 3:25 am
by Spiff
Thanks for making things 'clear' to us, Tim. :roll:

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2005 6:52 am
by anders
A pragmatic definition is "A new mineral is a chemical compound classified as a mineral by the International Mineralogical Association's (IMA) Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names (CNMMN).

That seems to mean that amorphous substances may be included, if they fulfil the criteria for, for example, "having been created by geological processes" and having a [sufficiently well?] defined chemical composition. Opals would qualify. Metamict materials can be traced back to well defined crystalline minerals, so they are normally included.

The composition of fulgerite would depend on the actual sand, so it will be more of a local structure than a mineral.

Standard requirements for the label "mineral" seem to be that minerals should be 1) inorganic, 2) solids.

It could be argued that petroleum is formed by natural geological processes, but it is organic and fluid, and the composition varies greatly. The one exception to the "solid" criterion is mercury.

An interesting consequence of those definitions is that some sources say synthetic diamonds are minerals, despite their not being created by geological processes, but because diamonds occur naturally, any identical man-made substance must inherit the label.