The decision on approval of the discovered mineral was accepted by the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, and informed on its website.
The commission also approved the mineral name – Mavlyanovite. Authors of the discovery named the mineral in honor of the Uzbek academician, Gani Mavlyanov, expert on geology, hydrogeology and seismology of Central Asia. Mavlyanov made a large contribution to geology and seismology of Uzbekistan. After the Tashkent earthquake of 1966, the scientist founded the Seismology Institute within the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. The institute has developed many forecasting and registration techniques of the earthquakes.
Mavlyanovite consists of hexagonal crystals of opaque steel color and presents manganese silicide – compound of five manganese atoms with three atoms of silicon. The natural mineral also contains the admixture of iron, titan, phosphorus and other elements. Crystals of manganese silicide are characterized by high hardness. In the nature they form “pebbles” of oval and round form averagely 4.5-6 centimeters in size.
These “pebbles” were found by Rustam Yusupov, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences of Geological Museum of State Geology Committee of Uzbekistan. The discovery was made in Koshmansay riverhead on the northern slope of the Chatkal Ridge, Tian Shan Mountains. The specimens were found out from diamond pipes or diatreme, as experts call it. Such structures represent channels formed in Earth’s crust after explosions of volcanic gases and filled with a mix of rocks and mantle substance. The last, as experts believe, comes up to the surface from more than hundreds of kilometers down.
Last years, such diatremes, Similar to Chatkal ones, have been discovered on neighboring territories – Tian Shan and Tibet. It allowed experts to think of deep breaks in the Earth’s crust passing from the northwest to the southeast and favorable for carrying out on the surface of substance from the depths of our planet.
Studying Mavlyanovite was conducted in advanced laboratories of Tashkent and London. In England, the structure of the new mineral was specified by electron microprobe of the mineralogy department of London Nature Museum.
The research allowed the scientists to reveal presence of another unknown mineral in the Mavlyanovite sample. English colleagues suggested it to name it in honor of the great Uzbek astronomer – Ulugbekovite.
Another sample of an unknown mineral, found by Rustam Yusupov during his trip to Algeria in Sahara desert, was also studied. This sample was Mavlyanovite too.
Rustam Yusupov is the discoverer of ten rare minerals on the territory of Uzbekistan. Some of them were found for the first time in the world. One of them – Khamrabaevite – was named in honor of a well known Uzbek academician, geologists. Suessite is the first mineral, found by Yusupov on Earth. Earlier, this mineral had been found from extraterrestrial substances – meteorites. Both these minerals come are found now in rocks samples together with Mavlanovite.
But Rustam Yusupov’s most important achievements is that last century he was the first in Uzbekistan to discover diamonds in basement rocks and it gave a push to search for new beds of this unique mineral.