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The Mineralogical Society of America (MSA) is professional membership organization open to any person interested in mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry, petrology, or any allied science. The membership is international, and there is an appropriate grade of membership for every phase of your scientific and professional life, from student to retirement.

10/30/2026

The abstract deadline for MSA's 2027 Annual Meeting is this Saturday, October 31, 2026 at midnight Eastern (USA) time. The meeting will be held in Tucson, AZ, USA from February 14 - 17, 2027, with optional field trips on February 18.
The link to submit your abstract is here: https://www.abstractscorecard.com/cfp/submit/login.asp?EventKey=GFOIIHTS.

NO abstract fee! Students get free registration!

With an audience of primarily mineralogists, geochemists, etc. it's a great place to present your research.

10/30/2026

American Mineralogist:

The role of clay minerals in the formation of ferromanganese nodules (FMNs) in Subtropical Monsoonal China

Anbei Deng, Lulu Zhao, Hanlie Hong, Qian Fang, Chaowen Wang, Hao Yang, Xincheng Qiu, Fuwen Jia, Bo Fang, Liao Yang, Jiaming Yang, Tingjun Fan, Ying Wang, Zhong-Qiang Chen

Exceptionally large iron-manganese nodules (10–50 cm) were discovered in intensely weathered subtropical soils of China. Distinct Fe- and Mn-rich zones exhibit contrasting mineral assemblages and microstructures shaped by redox oscillations. Clay minerals (kaolinite, illite) and gibbsite actively facilitate nodule nucleation and concentric growth processes. Multi-scale analyses reveal Mn-Al interlayering in Mn-rich sub-nodules, indicating complex geochemical segregation. These findings highlight clay minerals as key drivers in FMN genesis and recorders of extreme weathering and redox history.
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9969

10/29/2026

Seasonally appropriate Thin Section Thursday!

Chlorite + Fe±Ti-oxide pseudomorph after garnet in a retrogressed eclogite, French Massif Central. The matrix consists mostly of fine-grained intergrowths (symplectite) of amphibole + plagioclase ± diopside and other minerals after omphacite; ilmenite replacement of rutile; and garnets that have not been pseudomorphed. Field of view ~2 mm, plane polarized light. Contributed by Donna Whitney.

You can contribute too! Send image(s) and short explanation to akoziol1 at udayton dot edu.

10/28/2026

American Mineralogist:

Origin of tin-specialized granites constrained from fluid-absent metapelite melting experiments

Yongchao Liu, Christian Schmidt, Bernd Wunder, Christina Günter, Jiankang Li, Denghong Wang, Zhenyu Chen, Fangyue Wang, Valby Van Schijndel, Oona Appelt, Melanie Sieber

Tin-specialized granites typically originate from fluid-absent melting of metapelites. To constrain this, Liu et al. conducted melting experiments on natural pelitic schists at 750–950 °C, 300 and 900 MPa, and f(O2) of ~FMQ-2 to ~FMQ+2.7. The results demonstrate that biotite-dehydration melting is the key process for generating Sn-specialized granites. Critically, Sn partitions into the melt over restite under the investigated conditions. This confirms that favorable protoliths (e.g., pre-enrichment) significantly enhance the potential for Sn mineralization.
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9955

10/27/2026

Dear Mineral Sciences Community Members:

Please consider presenting your interesting mineral-related research at MSA Tucson 2027!

The meeting starts on Sunday, 14 February, with a day of overlap with the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show®, followed by three days of talks, posters, and other events (15-17 February), and an optional day of field trips (Thursday, 18 February).

Some highlights of the meeting:
• There is only one oral-presentation session at a time, with separate sessions for poster presentations.
• Student presenters get free registration + financial support for travel and syn-meeting costs.
• Meeting participants can go to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show® on Sunday, February 14.
• There will be opportunities to interact with the mineral enthusiast community at Breakfast with a Mineralogist (contact [email protected] to volunteer) and/or the Mineral and Gem Enthusiast Session on Sunday 2/14 (organized by Aaron Palke and John Rakovan; please consider submitting an abstract for the Sunday session!)
• There will be a variety of optional post-meeting field trips to see minerals in the wild.
• There are two (2) workshops: Raman Mineral ID (will require registration + a small fee) and Mindat.org (free, lunchtime event).
And: the MSA Tucson 2027 Program Committee, chaired by Sarah Penniston-Dorland, has selected an exciting slate of keynote speakers:
• Jeff Catalano, Washington University, St. Louis
• Gabriela Farfan, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History
• James Kubicki, University of Texas-El Paso
• Alexandra Navrotsky, Arizona State University
• Mark Rivers, Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory & University of Chicago
• Evan Smith, Gemological Institute of America
• John Valley, University of Wisconsin
Abstract submission deadline: October 31, 2026

Please consider donating to the student travel fund via the "Donate" button on the MSA website. All donated funds go to support student presenters at the meeting.

We hope to see you in Tucson in February!

Donna Whitney & Jeff Post
MSA Tucson 2027 Planning Co-chairs

10/27/2026

American Mineralogist:

Effect of Fe content on reduced partition function ratios of Ni isotopes in olivine: A first-principles study
Anwen Hou, Jiaxin Liang, Huiquan Tian, Shanqi Liu, Yongbing Li
This study employs first-principles calculations to determine the reduced partition function ratios of 60Ni/58Ni (β60-58 factors) for olivine with varying Fe contents. Results show that at fixed Ni concentration, increasing Fe content expands the unit-cell volume and lengthens the average Ni-O bond, thus decreasing β60-58 factor. A strong negative correlation exists between Ni-O bond length and the β60-58 factor. However, Ni content variation negligibly affects β60-58 when Ni/(Ni+Fe+Mg) ≤ 2/32. These findings provide theoretical insights into how Fe content governs Ni isotope fractionation in olivine.
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9946

10/26/2026

Mineral Monday!
MSA at GSA Part 1: Mineralogical Sightings
By Clem Hamelin

MSA was at the Geological Society of America Annual Meeting in Denver recently! MSA sponsors mineralogy and petrology sessions, organizes events and receptions, and showcases publications and outreach at the MSA Booth in the Exhibit Hall at GSA. We're highlighting some exciting MSA at GSA26 mineralogical sightings in Denver:

1 | Grace Gordon () is an undergraduate student at .oberlin, OH studying garnet chemical composition variations (zoning) in the Catalina Schist, off the coast of California, to uncover the geological secrets of this most-useful metamorphic mineral.

2 | Kayla Jones is an undergraduate student at William & Mary, VA () looking at oxygen isotope variations in kyanite from the largest kyanite mine in the world (Willis Mountain) and nearby localities to uncover what story these minerals tell about the fluids they interacted with during these strange rocks’ formation.

3 | Simon Skowron () is an undergraduate student at SUNY Geneseo, NY studying the minerals formed in human-made 'rocks' i.e., slag to determine if slag poses an environmental and human health risk to the nearby community.

4 | Sarah Cobb is a Professor of Mathematics at Midwestern State University, TX who paired up with geologists to create 3D visualization tools to teach mineralogy and crystallography. Find her teaching materials on OER Commons (bit.ly/47R5hCi) and models on Desmos (bit.ly/47cinKj)

10/23/2026

Coming up fast - the deadline to submit abstracts for the 2027 MSA Tucson Meeting!

Submit by October 31, 2026. Join us for a great meeting in Tucson in February.

$American Mineralogist:Disentangling magmatic-hydrothermal evolution of highly fractionated granite through the integrati...$

10/23/2026

American Mineralogist:

Disentangling magmatic-hydrothermal evolution of highly fractionated granite through the integration of zircon and monazite U-Th-Pb and Hf/Nd-O isotopes

Xing Zhang, Rui Li, Wen-Xiang Zhang, Bin Fu, Guangyan Zhou, Zhaochu Hu, Yuanbao Wu

This work by Zhang et al. shows that integrated zircon and monazite U–Th–Pb and Hf/Nd–O isotope analyses reveal the magmatic–hydrothermal evolution of the Wuduoshan pluton, central China. Early magmatic zircon dates granite emplacement at 401.1 ± 4.2 Ma, whereas high-U zircon likely formed from late-stage magmatic fluids. Variable, slightly lower oxygen isotope signatures in late-stage zircon suggest external fluid involvement during crystallization or subsequent alteration. Monazite records a distinct hydrothermal event at 384.4 ± 2.5 Ma, approximately 17 million years after emplacement. Its Nd–O isotope compositions suggest fluids derived from evolved supracrustal materials. These results demonstrate how combined zircon–monazite isotopic analyses can resolve complex granite evolution.
https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2025-9941

10/22/2026

Thin Section Thursday! Andesite from Indonesia with a twinned pyroxene in the center. Taken under cross-polarized light. Contributed by Bernhard W. Seubert.

You can contribute too! Send image(s) and short caption to akoziol1 (at) udayton dot edu.

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14200 Park Meadow Drive, Suite 310-S
Chantilly, VA
20151

Telephone

+17036529950

Website

http://msaweb.org/

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