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Harvard curator Bill Metropolis will discuss the university’s collection of minerals and offer samples for examination noon today in Van Wickle Hall room 108.
Lunch will be provided free of charge to students and for $3 to faculty and staff. The event is part of the Geology Spring Seminar Series sponsored by the geology and environmental geosciences department.
“My talk will be about ‘Minerals with a Story,’” says Metropolis. “This will look at approximately 25 specimens, each having some sort of interesting or humorous story. The talk will be lots of fun with interesting samples to examine and hold.
Dating to before 1785, the Mineralogical and Geological Museum’s collection has over 100,000 minerals, with 7,000 meteorites, 7,000 gemstones, and 350,000 rock and ore samples. The museum’s teaching and display collection of minerals was transformed into a research collection with the bequest of A. F. Holden, a 1888 graduate of Harvard. The mineral collection ranks among the world’s finest due to its broad representation, wealth of rare species, large number of specimens described in the scientific literature, and the quality of its display specimens. The systematic mineral collection and displays of rough and cut gemstones are the principal exhibits in the mineral gallery.
The collections of rocks and ores, worldwide in scope, were acquired primarily through the fieldwork of faculty and students. The Smith meteorite collection, acquired in 1883, gave the museum international standing in the study of meteorites. Taken together, these various collections constitute an impressive sampling of the earth’s crust.
In another upcoming Geology Spring Seminar, Steve Clemens, senior research associate in geological sciences at Brown University, will discuss the causes of variations in the strength of Asian monsoons Friday, April 2.
Previous Geology Seminar talks:
Sheila Hutcherson, underground mine geologist , March 22: “Geology from Beneath the Surface — Gold and Platinum Mining from a Geologist’s Point of View”
Dana Emerson ’03, AmeriCorps program within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, March 5: environmental outreach work
Annette Russo ’80, senior manager of global environment, health, and safety and mobility for telecommunications firm Avaya Inc. in Basking Ridge, N.J., Feb. 20 — “Trends in Environmental Programs and Legislation and Industry Response in a Post-9/11 World”
Guy Hovis, John H. Markle Professor of Geology, Feb. 6: “A European Sabbatical Travelogue — and Why I Destroy Minerals”