The 60^th Anniversary of the Commission on New Minerals of the Russian Mineralogical Society, its first two chairmen and trends in increasing of the mineral number

Bulakh A. G.

Zapiski RMO (Proceedings of the Russian Mineralogical Society). 2016. V. 145. N 6. P. 72-79

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Language: Russian

Abstract

The 25th November in 1956, General Meeting of the All-Union (the USSR) Mineralogical Society (RMS now) approved an establishment of the RMS Commission on new minerals and elected its Chairman — Professor D. P. Grigoriev (1909—2003). Principles of the Commission work are highlighted in its official reports; history of its activity is displayed in the special publication (Bulakh, 2010). At the same time, Professor D.Grigoriev was among founders of the International mineralogical Association (IMA) and the Commission on new minerals (CNM) in its structure. This foundation took place in 1959 in Madrid, and M.Fleischer became the first President of the IMA CNM. Professor D. Grigoriev himself, remaining the Chairman of the RMS CNM, was elected in Madrid the Vice-President of IMA and the Chairman of its Commission on cosmic mineralogy. Later, in 1964—1994, Professor V. A. Frank-Kamenetskiy was the Chairman of the RMS Commission on new minerals. During decades Russia is the leader in discoveries of new minerals. Their statistics clearly show the change in the rate of discoveries starting somewhere from 1960s. We attribute this event to the beginning of activities of commissions on new minerals. Three equations of approximation are derived for the number of new minerals discovered per year (N): N = 150 · exp(0.0833x) (for years 1810—2013); N = 302 + 35x (1810—1960), N = –8958 + 330x (after 1960).

Key words: new minerals, commissions on new minerals, D. P. Grigoriev, V. A. Frank-Kamenetskiy, number of minerals, rate of discovery new minerals.