Lawsonite
Hydrous calcium aluminium sorosilicate indicative of some high-pressure/low-temperature metamorphic conditions.
Language and route: English scientific mineral eponym named after Andrew Cowper Lawson, with mineral suffix -ite. English scientific mineral eponym named after Andrew Cowper Lawson, with mineral suffix -ite
Literal gloss: mineral honouring Andrew Lawson
The name and its history
Frederick Leslie Ransome; association with Charles Palache · 1895, Bulletin Department Geological Sciences 1:301–312
- What does the word literally mean?
- Immediate borrowing or word-formation route: English scientific mineral eponym named after Andrew Cowper Lawson, with mineral suffix -ite. Source form: Lawson (Lawson), glossed ‘surname commemorated’. Conventional short gloss: ‘mineral honouring Andrew Lawson’. A literal gloss and the historical reason for naming must be distinguished.
- What did the original author mean?
- Frederick L. Ransome described lawsonite from the Tiburon Peninsula in 1895, in work associated with Charles Palache.
- Why was the name needed?
- An unfamiliar crystalline constituent of California rocks did not fit established species and warranted mineralogical description.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Field collection, microscopic identification and chemical testing provided its early evidence, not an interpretation of subducting oceanic crust.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- Because lawsonite can retain much water at high pressures, it became essential to interpreting subduction-zone fluid transport and facies relations.
Further historical context
Frederick L. Ransome described lawsonite from the Tiburon Peninsula in 1895, in work associated with Charles Palache.
An unfamiliar crystalline constituent of California rocks did not fit established species and warranted mineralogical description.
Field collection, microscopic identification and chemical testing provided its early evidence, not an interpretation of subducting oceanic crust.
Because lawsonite can retain much water at high pressures, it became essential to interpreting subduction-zone fluid transport and facies relations.
Editorial qualification
Original naming passage has not been independently transcribed; a later nomenclatural account cannot by itself establish first coinage.
Related names
Sources
- Mindat — Lawsonite — Ransome 1895 type account, Palache collaboration, modern high-P/low-T discovery
- IUGS recommendations on high-pressure rocks — modern assemblage versus facies naming safeguards
- Mindat — Glaucophane — Hausmann 1845 Syra initial description and modern amphibole species