Home > Continental Europe – December 31 > MS0849 Strunzite, Laueite

Strunzite, Laueite - Sold


Strunzite (Frondel, 1958; abstracted here.) and laueite (Strunz, 1958; abstracted here) are manganese iron phosphate minerals, differing mostly in water content. Strunzite is named after Hugo Strunz, (1910-2006), professor of mineralogy at the Berlin Technical University. Laueite is named in honor of Max von Laue (1879-1960), German physicist who received the Nobel prize for his discovery of X-ray diffraction. Strunzite forms abundant straw yellow matted fibers to 5 mm in this iron gossan type matrix. There are submillimetric microcrystals of orange laueite in some cavities in the matrix. This is a nice specimen of strunzite from the personal collection of Ralph Merrill, proprietor of the prolific mail order business Minerals Unlimited. Merrill's collection card and label also ship with the specimen.