AE Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow, Russia

A.E. Fersman Mineralogical Museum, Moscow, Russia

Dagmar Dietrich and Mike Viney The Fersman Mineralogical Museum archives two Clover Creek opalized oak specimens that were acquired from the Iossa family mineral collection in 1918. Vladimir Alexandrovich Iossa (1848-1919), graduated from the Mining Institute in St. Petersburg (1874), served as mining engineer in the Don Military Region, a member of the Russian Mining Department. In 1898 he was elected an active member of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society (personal communication, Mikhail Evgenievich Generalov, 2018). FM 12682 Photo, A.A. Jevsejev. Specimen FM 12682 measures 8 x 8 x 4 cm. The museum label reads: Opal. Pseudomorph of opal after wood. Clover Creek, Idaho, FM 12682 W.A. Iossa Collection, 1918. Specimen FM. 12681 measures 8 x 4 x 1 cm. The museum label reads: Opal after wood. Clover Creek, Idaho, USA. FM (Nr. 12681), collection I.A. Iossa, 1918.

1

FM 12681 Photo A.A. Jevsejev The information in this document is an attempt to locate opalized oak specimens recovered from a fossil tree discovered near Clover Creek in south-central Idaho, USA in 1895 (Viney, Mills, and Link, 2016; Viney et al., 2016). Opalized oak specimens from this site were subsequently purchased and distributed across the world by Foote of Philadelphia with many acquired by museums. Julius Schuster (1886-1949) described and named the fossil oak Quercinium pliocaenicum (Schuster 1908). References Schuster, J. 1908. Über ein pliocänes eichenholz aus Idaho. Neues Jahrbucher für Mineralogie, Geologie und Palaontologie 2: 49-54. Viney, M., J. Mills, and P. Link. 2016. Opalized Wood from Clover Creek, Gooding County, Idaho. Rocks and Minerals, 91:3, 258-268. Viney, M., D. Dietrich, G. Mustoe, P. Link, T. Lampke, J. Götze, and R. Rößler. 2016. Multi-Stage Silicification of Pliocene Wood: Re-Examination of an 1895 Discovery from Idaho, USA. Geosciences, 6:2, 1-21.



2