Elaterite

Elaterite (also known as Aeonite,[1] 'elastic bitumen' , 'mineral caoutchouc' or Wurtzilite) is a brown hydrocarbon varying somewhat in consistency, being sometimes soft, elastic and sticky, like India rubber, and occasionally hard and brittle. It is usually dark brown in color and slightly translucent. A substance of similar physical character is found at sites around the Coorong lagoon in South Australia, and is hence termed coorongite.[2]

Occurrence in nature

• Strawberry, Utah, USA: Elaterite can be found in the Indian Canyon, Sams Canyon, Dry Fork, and Lake canyon, as well as in tributaries of the Strawberry river in Duchesne County. It occurs in vertical veins from one to twenty-two inches wide, twenty to two hundred feet high, and a maximum length of three and one quarter miles" [3] Elaterite also flows from the ground in a soft elastic form at various locations along the Strawberry River

• Castleton in Derbyshire: Elaterite can be found in the Windy Knoll Cave and the lead mines of Odin.

References

1. "Aeonite". Retrieved 2012-04-07.
2. Chisholm 1911, p. 160.
3. The hydrocarbon Field of Western Colorado and Eastern Utah on the Projected Line of the Denver, Northwestern, and Pacific Railroad, page 26

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Elaterite". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 160.

Further reading