Ewingite: Earth’s most complex mineral Travis A. Olds1, Jakub Plášil2, Anthony R. Kampf3, Antonio Simonetti1, Luke R. Sadergaski1, Yu-Sheng Chen4, and Peter C. Burns1,5* 1Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA 2Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 18221 Prague 8, Czech Republic 3Mineral Sciences Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, California 90007, USA 4Center for Advanced Radiation Sources, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60632, USA 5Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, USA ABSTRACT Nu Instruments, http://nu-ins.com) in medium The newly discovered mineral ewingite is the most structurally complex mineral known. mass resolution (∆m/m ~3300). An external Ewingite is found in the abandoned Plavno mine in the Jáchymov ore district, western Bohe- calibration method was used to determine the mia (Czech Republic), and was studied by synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The structure of concentrations of U, Mg, Mn, and Ca by measur- ewingite contains nanometer-scale anionic uranyl carbonate cages that contain 24 uranyl ing ion signals for the isotopes 238U, 235U, 24Mg, 25 55 44 polyhedra, as well as Ca and Mg cations and H2O groups located in interstitial regions inside Mg, Mn, and Ca. and between the cages. The discovery of ewingite suggests that nanoscale uranyl carbon- ate cages could be aqueous species in some systems, and these may affect the geochemical Single Crystal X-Ray Diffraction behavior of uranium. A yellow crystal of ewingite with dimensions 66 × 44 × 11 µm was mounted on the tip of INTRODUCTION (Finch and Ewing, 1992; Janeczek and Ewing, a glass fiber with glue. The X-ray diffraction Earth by mass consists almost entirely of 1992; Plášil, 2014). Crystallization from ura- experiment was done with a Bruker D8 diffrac- structurally simple minerals, with an explosion nyl-bearing solutions often results in fascinating tometer and an APEX II detector using synchro- of diversity and complexity in the volumetri- assemblages of brightly colored uranyl minerals, tron radiation, 30 keV (0.41328Å), at 100(2) K cally insignificant crust, and especially in near- including ewingite (Fig. 1). Uranyl minerals are with an Oxford Cyrojet. A total of 2160 frames surface environments (Hazen, 2010). Mineral important for understanding the geochemical (0.5°/ϕ scans) were collected at 2θ angles of −8° species diversity and the complexity of indi- history of uranium deposits, and have broader and −15°. At each 2θ angle, the ω angles are at vidual mineral species have increased through societal importance because they form due to values of −180°, −160°, and 140°. The distance geologic time as geochemical processes frac- the alteration of spent nuclear fuel in laboratory between the detector and the crystal was 12 cm tionated elements and the atmosphere became studies intended to simulate conditions in a geo- with an exposure time of 0.2 s. oxidizing (Hazen, 2010). Anthropogenically logic repository for nuclear waste (Wronkiewicz modified systems including mines and their et al., 1992,1996), on radioactive so-called lava RESULTS AND DISCUSSION related tailings have produced many new min- (a nuclear reactor meltdown product) produced Ewingite forms aggregates of golden-yellow eral species. Our exploration of an abandoned by the Chernobyl nuclear accident (Burakov et crystals as large as 0.2 mm in diameter on altered uranium mine in the Czech Republic has yielded al., 1996), on uranium mine tailings including uraninite, and is associated with other uranyl car- ewingite, which is now Earth’s most structurally in Europe, Canada, Australia, and the United bonate minerals, including liebigite and metazel- complex known mineral. Ewingite, named in States, and in subsurfaces contaminated due to lerite (Fig. 1). Uranyl minerals, including ewing- honor of Rodney C. Ewing (Stanford Univer- inadequate containment of wastes created dur- ite, are typically various shades of yellow, green, 2+ sity, California, USA), formed on a damp wall ing production of nuclear weapons (Buck et al., and orange because they incorporate the (UO2) of the old Plavno mine of the Jáchymov ore 1996, 1995). Uranyl minerals affect transport uranyl ion, which is a strong coloring agent district, western Bohemia, in the same region of uranium in the environment, and record the owing to its electronic transitions. Single-crystal where uranium ore was mined for the studies of history of natural and anthropogenic processes synchrotron X-ray diffraction at the Advanced Marie and Pierre Curie that resulted in the dis- involving uranium. Photon Source (Argonne National Laboratory, covery of polonium and radium more than 100 Illinois, USA) allowed solution of the structure; yr ago. Here we describe ewingite, the structural METHODS this, in combination with HR-ICP-MS (see the reasons for its complexity, and its potential sig- GSA Data Repository1), established that ewing- nificance for modeling of geochemical systems Chemical Analyses ite is a uranyl carbonate with the composition containing uranium. High-resolution–inductively coupled plasma– Mg8Ca8(UO2)24(CO3)30O4(OH)12(H2O)138. Most uranium in Earth’s crust occurs as the mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS) was used to The structure analysis revealed that ewing- U(IV)-oxide mineral uraninite, UO2+x, and this determine the empirical formula for ewingite. ite is tetragonal, space group I41/acd, with unit is also the case in the Plavno mine. In the pres- We hand-picked ~40 small crystals, weighing cell dimensions a = 35.142(2) Å, b = 35.142(2) ence of water and oxidizing conditions, U(IV) is ~250 µg, with the aid of a microscope and placed Å, c = 47.974(3) Å, and V = 59245(8) Å3. The susceptible to hydrolysis (Sylva and Davidson, them in two separate microcentrifuge tubes. The 1979) and oxidation to U(VI), and readily dis- crystals were digested in 1 mL of high-purity, 1 GSA Data Repository item 2017341, complete details of all analytical procedures used during the solves as the uranyl ion, (UO )2+, in groundwater double-distilled 2% HNO acid and subsequently 2 3 characterization of ewingite, is available online at diluted 200-fold. Solution-mode ICP-MS analy- http://www.geosociety.org/datarepository /2017/ or on *E-mail: [email protected] ses were done using the AttoM HR-ICP-MS (by request from [email protected]. GEOLOGY, November 2017; v. 45; no. 11; p. 1007–1010 | Data Repository item 2017341 | doi:10.1130/G39433.1 | Published online 2 October 2017 ©GEOLOGY 2017 Geological | Volume Society 45 | ofNumber America. 11 For | www.gsapubs.org permission to copy, contact [email protected]. 1007 Figure 2. Golden-yellow crystals of ewingite on top of massive urani- nite, with transparent gypsum, and green crys- tals of an unnamed Ca-Cu uranyl carbonate. From the Plavno mine (Vladi- mir shaft), second level (Jáchymov ore district, western Bohemia, Czech Republic). Horizontal field of view is 2.5 mm (photo by Pavel Skacha). known from other uranyl compounds (Figs. 2A k and 2B). In all of these, (UO )2+ uranyl ions are bits 2 IG = pilog2 pi . (1) approximately linear and have U-O bond lengths i = 0 atom of ~1.8 Å. FBU-1 consists of three uranyl ions, each of which is coordinated by five oxygen Here k is the number of crystallographic atoms arranged about the equatorial regions of orbits, where symmetrically equivalent atoms pentagonal bipyramids (Fig. 2C). A single oxy- belong to the same orbit, and pi = mi/v, where mi gen atom in the equatorial planes of the bipyra- is the multiplicity of the crystallographic orbit mids is bonded to all three uranyl ions, and the and v is the number of atoms in the reduced cell. bipyramids each share two of their equatorial The total information content of the unit cell, edges with two other bipyramids. In FBU-2, a IGtotal, is IG multiplied by the number of atoms uranyl ion is coordinated by three bidentate car- in the reduced cell. The average information bonate groups, resulting in a hexagonal bipyr- content of 3949 minerals is 228(6) bits per unit amid with carbonate groups in the equatorial cell (Krivovichev, 2013). Minerals with more region of the uranyl ion (Fig. 2D). In FBU-3, than 1000 bits of information per unit cell are a uranyl ion is coordinated by two bidentate designated very complex, and this designation carbonate groups and two H2O groups in the applies to ~2.5% of known minerals (Krivovi- equatorial region of a hexagonal bipyramid (Fig. chev, 2013). 2E). One carbon site in the cage is 50% occupied, The TOPOS program (Blatov et al., 2000) and the average makeup of the cage requires four was used to calculate that the information con- FBU-1 and six each of FBU-2 and FBU-3. In tent (Krivovichev, 2013) of the structure of Figures 2A and 2B, the partially occupied car- ewingite, as determined by the single-crystal bon site is included, and the cage corresponds X-ray diffraction analysis, is 12,684.86 bits per to four each of FBU-1 and FBU-3, and eight of unit cell. The X-ray data did not provide loca- FBU-3. Linkages between the FBUs within the tions of some of the disordered H2O groups or cage are through carbonate groups. any of the H atoms in the structure, although There are six calcium cations and two mag- they also contribute to its information content. nesium cations inside the uranyl carbonate cage, The total information content is ~23,000 bits/ where they are coordinated by O atoms of the unit cell when all unit cell constituents are cage, as well as H2O groups.