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[Festina]

Hello ! I would appreciate your help.

I would like to know:

1) Who discovered the mineral Copiapite

2) Who was the first one to describe it. In accordance with mindat.org, it was Rose in "Annal der Physic" of 1833 but the indication of vol-pages do not fit.

Thank you for your kind attention

[Pete Modreski]

Festina,

Checking A.M. Clark, 1993, Hey's Mineral Index, 3rd ed., p. 154, it gives the same reference but a slightly different page number that quoted in Mindat:

H. Rosé (1833) Ann. Phys. Chem. (Pogg.), 27, 309 (Copiapit).

I know it is often rather difficult to decide what is the exact "first description" of any long-known mineral, since often such minerals were known (or, inferred to have been known) under other names or descriptive terms, before the actual name now in use was coined. For copiapite, Dana (6th ed., 1892, p. 784) lists a number of earlier references to what was presumed to have been copiapite, dating all the way back to Pliny. His reference to Rose (1833) is to "Yellow Copperas. Basisches schwefelsaures Eisenoxyd", so it's not clear whether Rose actually used the name "copiapit" or "copiapite"; I assume, probably not. Dana then lists "Copiapite, Haid., Handb., 489, 1845.", referring to:
"Haid., Nat. Abh. Wien.; Naturwissenschaftliche Abhandlunger, von Haidinger. 4to. Vols. 1-4, 1847-'51."

Does this help?
Pete

[keldjarn]

Rose (1833) was the first to publish a chemical analysis of the mineral but did not name it. Haidinger (1847) was the first to use the name "Copiapite".
Knut

[Festina]

Thank yo so much, Pete and Knut, for your prompt and most useful replies