Ytterby

Ytterby is a village on the Swedish island of Resarö, in Vaxholm Municipality in the Stockholm archipelago.

The name of the village means "outer village", implying that its location is its most noteworthy feature.[1]

At a quarry near the village, four rare earth minerals have been discovered. Yttrium (Y), erbium (Er), terbium (Tb), and ytterbium (Yb) are all named for the village[1] and were first described in 1794, 1842, 1842, and 1878, respectively. In 1989 the ASM International society installed a plaque at the former entrance to the mine, commemorating the mine as a historical landmark.[2] In addition, three other lanthanides, holmium (named after Stockholm), thulium (named after Thule, a mythic analog of Scandinavia), and gadolinium (after the chemist Johan Gadolin) can trace their discovery to the same quarry.[3] Furthermore, there is yet another rare earth element, scandium, which is named for the entire region of the Scandinavian Peninsula, via its old name of "Scandia".

See also

Sweden portal
Chemistry portal

References

  1. ^ a b Emsley, John (2001). Nature's Building Blocks. Oxford University Press. p. 496. ISBN 0-19-850341-5. 
  2. ^ Blom, Carl-Hugo (18 June 2006). "Ytterby gruva" (in Swedish). Stockholms läns hembygdsförbund. http://www.hembygd.se/index.asp?DocID=2785. Retrieved 9 June 2007. 
  3. ^ Kean, Sam (16 July 2010). "Ytterby: The Tiny Swedish Island That Gave the Periodic Table Four Different Elements". Slate. http://www.slate.com/id/2258112/entry/2260782. Retrieved 22 March 2011.