"Putnisite" – A new mineral discovered with a unique composition

April 27, 2014

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Australian scientists have discovered an entirely new brittle, translucent, orthorombic crystalline structure, purple and translucent mineral “Putnisite,” in a surface outcrop at Polar Bear peninsula, Southern Lake Cowan in Western Australia. It occurs as tiny crystals, smaller than 0.5 mm in diameter, and is found on volcanic rock. It appears as dark pink spots on green-white rocks and forms almost perfect cube-shaped crystals. At present it is unclear whether Putnisite will have any practical applications.

Why discovery of “Putnisite” is different from the world’s known 4,000 minerals?
The discovery of “Putnisite” so special and different from from the world’s known 4,000 minerals is its very strange combination of Strontium(Sr), Calcium(Ca), Chromium(Cr), Sulphur(S), Carbon(C), Oxygen(O) and Hydrogen(H) elements, forming a kind of panoptic and distinctive formula “SrCa₄Cr₈³⁺(CO₃)₈SO₄(OH)₁₆•25H₂O”. Thus, an unusual elemental combination is notable for its dissimilarity from other known families of minerals.