Mineral sublimates on steaming culm (coal waste) heaps in NE Pennsylvania: one of Dr. Robert Finkelman’s (USGS) contributions in a career on trace element chemistry in coal

I have been aware of mineral sublimates (materials or minerals formed by direct solid deposition from gas) for a long time from research of friends and colleagues at Dartmouth College on fumarolic sublimates at Izalco volcano in El Salvador. Early collection of minerals there occurred in the 1960’s before and after the 1966 eruption of Izalco*. Vanadates and copper vanadate minerals were found among the sublimates, including several newly identified minerals. For a few of the new sublimates, I, having microscope reflectance measurement experience through coal petrography work, contributed the mineral reflectivity data required for naming new opaque minerals.**

Izalco volcano, El Salvador (this photo and one below from Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program)

On Monday, November 5, 2017, at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, I attended the initial biographical presentation by Dr. Harvey Belkin in a session honoring Bob Finkelman (US Geological Survey) for his career in inorganic trace element chemistry of coals and related contributions to the understanding health issues of trace element exposure during mining or home coal use.

Belkin related that one of Finkelman’s early publications (1987; citation below) was on his description of new mineral, downeyite, the first confirmed natural occurrence of selenium oxide. Downeyite is a sublimate formed near a hot gas vent, but not at a volcano: it was found on a burning culm heap in the Northern Anthracite field of Pennsylvania! Piled coal or coal waste can smolder or spontaneously combust. I previously wrote in 2015 about culm heap fires in northeastern Pennsylvania, and evidence that a coal fire in one of the coal bunkers on the Titanic was a possible reason for the speed of passage (easiest way to stop a bunker coal fire is to shovel down and use up coal).

Fell Township, PA, coal waste dump fire, February 2014. (The Scranton Times-Tribune)

Forestville coal dump where downeyite first found. (From PA Geological Survey, Mineral Resource Report 78, 1980)

Downeyite is acicular, colorless and extremely hygroscopic, so, as described in Finkelman and Mrose (1977), must be immediately put in a desiccator upon removal from the hot dry vent environment. Temperatures where downeyite was deposited were 190-230˚C.   Over twenty other minerals found at “anthracite smokers”, as vents of hot gas on culm heaps or over underground mine fires are called (Stracher, 1995), are detailed in Pennsylvania Geologic Survey Mineral Resource Report 78 (citation and download link below), including crystals of elemental selenium. That report indeed does cite the similar occurrence of sublimates at volcanic fumaroles including Izalco!

(From PA Geological Survey, Mineral Resource Report 78, 1980)

Finkelman, “Anthracite smoker” references

Finkelman, R. B., Mrose, M. E., 1977, Downeyite, the first verified natural occurrence of SeO2: American Mineralogist, v. 62, n. 3-4, p. 316-320. (https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-abstract/62/3-4/316/40741/downeyite-the-first-verified-natural-occurrence-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext)

Finkelman, Robert B., Belkin, Harvey E., and Zheng, Baoshan, 1999, Health impacts of domestic coal use in China: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS), v. 96, n. 7, p. 3427-3431. (http://www.pnas.org/content/96/7/3427)

Lapham, Davis M., Barnes, John H., Downey, Wayne F., Jr., Finkelman, Robert B., 1980, Mineralogy associate with burning anthracite deposits of Eastern Pennsylvania: Mineral Resource Report 78, Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Fourth Series, Harrisburg, 92 pages. (Can download from this page- scroll down to “M 78”: http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/topogeo/publications/pgspub/mineral/index.htm )

Stracher, Glenn, B., 1995, The anthracite smokers of eastern Pennsylvania: P_S2(g) -T stability diagram by TL analysis: Mathematical Geology, v. 7, n. 4, p. 499-511 (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02084424)

Izalco references

*Rose, W. I., Stoiber, R. E., 1969, The 1966 eruption of Izalco Volcano, El Salvador: Journal of Geophysical Research, v. 74, n. 12, p. 3119- 3130.

Stoiber, R. E., Rose, W. I., Jr., 1974, Fumarole incrustations at active Central American volcanoes: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 38, p. 495-516.

**Hughes, J. M., Drexler, J. W., Campana, C. F., Malinconico, M. L., 1988, Howardevansite, (Na, K)CuFe2(VO4)3, a new fumarolic sublimate from Izalco Volcano, El Salvador, Descriptive mineralogy and crystal structure: American Mineralogist, v. 73, p. 181-186.

Hughes, J. M., Starkey, S., Malinconico, M. L., and Malinconico, L. L., Jr., 1987, Lyonsite, Cu3Fe4(VO4)O6, a new fumarolic sublimate from Izalco Volcano, El Salvador, Descriptive mineralogy and crystal structure: American Mineralogist, v. 72, p. 1000-1005.

Robinson, P. D., Hughes, J. M., Malinconico, M. L., 1987, Blossite, alpha-Cu 2V2O7, a new fumarolic sublimate from Izalco Volcano, El Salvador, Descriptive mineralogy and crystal structure: American Mineralogist, v. 72, p. 397-400.