| Levinsonite-(Y) | |
| Formula: | (empirical) Y0.3Nd0.2La0.1Sm0.1Gd0.1Al(SO4)2(C2O4)·12(H2O) |
| Strunz: | 10.AB.70 |
| Dana: | 50.01.09.03 |
| System: | monoclinic |
| Colour: | colourless |
| Habit: | prismatic |
| Fracture: | brittle, irregular |
| Luster: | vitreous |
| Streak: | white |
| Density: | 2.09 |
Levinsonite-(Y) is a rare organic mineral named in honor of Alfred A. Levinson (1927-2005), professor of mineralogy at the University of Calgary. It was named in part because of his origination of the internationally used nomenclature for rare-earth minerals, the Levinson modifier,[1] which is a standard in mineralogical nomenclature and allows for the more precise identification and classification of rare-earth minerals.[2]
The type material for Levinsonite-(Y) is kept at the University of Michigan, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.[3]
In 1981, T. Dennis Coskren and Robert J. Lauf began investigating a large number of unusual minerals at the Alum Cave Bluff (ACB), Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, USA.[4] Coskren and Lauf discovered three new rare-earth element minerals, which have subsequently been named coskrenite-(Ce), levinsonite-(Y), and zugshunstite-(Ce). After submission to the International Mineralogical Association (IMA), the naming of Levinsonite-(Y) was approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names and given the IMA number 1996-057.[5]