Department of Mineralogy
The main research area of the Department of Mineralogy is the study and description of rare and new minerals. Currently the focus is on oxidation zones of Chilean ore deposits.
New minerals, such as for example the copper minerals haydeeite or tondiite from Chile, described within our research on geodiversity are playing an important role in current research of unusual states of matter at low temperatures.
The Mineralogical Museum can provide more than half of the 5300 known mineral species for research and education. Hence, the mineralogical collection of Hamburg is, besides the collections of the universities in Freiberg and Berlin, one of the most important mineralogical reference collections in Germany.
In the recent past research has also been undertaken on meteorites from Africa and the Middle East. At present this work is on hold, as the accessibility to these regions is restricted.
A further research project is focusing on the development of new methods for faster and easier identification of geological indicator minerals using Raman spectroscopy. This and other research is done in collaboration with our colleagues from the Mineralogisch-Petrographischen Institut, Universität Hamburg.
