Serpentine Post Updated

I just updated my Serpentine: A Group of Minerals post from last summer with some new geoblogosphere links relating to fibrous and asbestiform minerals, including erionite, a zeolite group of minerals that can occur in acicular to fibrous mineral habits. The reason for the update is that the Mineralogical Society of America recently released their Proposed Position Statement on Asbestos, as reported on more thoroughly by Chuck Magee at Lounge of the Lab Lemming and Steven Schimmrich at Hudson Valley Geologist (links below).

• Erionite and Cancer in Cappadocia, Turkey (Olelog, November 5, 2010)


• Guest Post - Naturally Harmful Metals and Minerals (The Geology P.A.G.E., December 29, 2010)


• Concerns over erionite dust as cancer source (Arizona Geology, January 5, 2011)


• Mineralogical Society of America proposes a position statement on Asbestos (Lounge of the Lab Lemming, March 1, 2011)


• Asbestos (Hudson Valley Geologist, March 9, 2011)

I'm particularly amazed that any regulatory agency would use a length:width ratio of 3:1 to describe a mineral as fibrous. Plagioclase would therefore be fibrous much of the time (though certainly not asbestiform), as would these huge cave crystals of selenite.