Mindat.org
| Web address |
www |
|---|---|
| Slogan | the mineral and locality database |
| Commercial? | No |
Mindat.org is a non-commercial online mineralogical database, claiming to be the largest mineral database and mineralogical reference website on the internet.
It contains a significant database of minerals, localities and mineral photographs, and is updated constantly by registered users adding and editing entries.
As of 2013, it included:
- 41,786 mineral names (this includes mineral varieties, synonyms and discredited names), of which 4,723 are minerals recognised by the International Mineralogical Association.
- 236,974 mineral localities worldwide, with information on 774,370 mineral occurrences within these sites.
- 135,896 of the localities have maps and/or grid coordinates available, and the site can use a google map applet to show the location.
- Over 500,000 photos of minerals have been uploaded, arranged into galleries from collectors worldwide who wish to share their mineral collections online.
- 32,512 users registered to upload photos and/or edit data.
History of Mindat.org
Mindat was started in 1993 as a personal database project by Jolyon Ralph. He then developed further versions as a Microsoft Windows application before launching a community-editable database web site in late 2000.[1] Mindat.org now uses the MediaWiki software for its online manual.[2]
Jolyon Ralph was awarded the Mineralogical Society of America's Distinguished public service medal in 2011 for his work on Mindat.org.[3]
See also
- Robert Lavinsky (Lavinsky), a well-known mineral collector and dealer, donated his complete picture database on mindat.org to Wikimedia Commons, over 50,000 photos of minerals. The mineral lavinskyite (IMA 2012-028) was named after him.