Museum Kingdom of Crystals
Director: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schmahl
Mineralogical Institutes at the LMU
Other Bavarian State Collections
German Association for Mineralogical Museums and Collections
The Museum "Kingdom of Crystals"
The Museum "Kingdom of Crystals" is the public part of the Mineralogical State Collection.
The main part of the show cases is grouped around the central lecture room of the Department of Geosciences. In the western part there are educational showcases which are dedicated to special themes like crystal structures, symmetry, crystal optics, crystal growth.
One showcase offers an insight into the industrial production of monocrystalline silica under the motto "From Quartz to Microchip". In a second showcase the visitor can see "live" crystal growth: crystals of chalkanthite and alunite are growing "in situ".
Showcases embedded in the outer wall of the main lecture room are dedicated to Bavarian mineral and ore deposits. Here the visitor can see excellent specimens of those minerals that made some of the Bavarian mineral localities rank first in the world, for instance the famous phosphate minerals from the Hagendorf and Pleystein pegmatites (phosphophyllite, hureaulite, ludlamite, strengite), the magnificent fluorites from Woelsendorf or the fascinating minerals from Maroldsweisach (tobermorite, afwillite, thaumasite, all in excellent crystals).
A special show room contains the most worthy specimens of the museum: the best Russian emerald, the famous König Ludwig Diamond (flawless crystal in matrix), an excellent specimen of native gold from California, large gold and platinum nuggets from the Urals in Russia, many excellent crystals of gemstone minerals, for instance topaz, tourmaline, ruby, sapphire and many top specimens more.
The "cosmic" part of the show room offers many rare and interesting meteorite specimens, a huge 286 kilogram iron from Namibia, a carbonaceous chondrite from Italy (Vigarano), diamond bearing meteorites (Pultusk), a rare howardite (Jelica), a martian mezteorite (Zagami) and last but not least the famous Mauerkirchen meteorite, a gift from the Bavarian King Ludwig I.
Minerals from Bavarian localities
Minerals from the Alps
Minerals from the ancient Soviet Union
Meteorites
The Mineralogical State Collection is a research
collection.
That means minerals are not only collected to be stored in drawers but
also to be used by researchers from Munich universities and from all
over
the world.
Main topics of research at the Mineralogical State Collection are:
-
Mineralogy and crystal chemistry of natural CSH-phases
Minerals of the beudantite group
Meteorites
Crystal chemistry of minerals of the jahnsite-whiteite group
Ultra high pressure minerals
Mineralogical State Collection, Theresienstrasse 41, D-80333
München,
Germany
e-mail: mineralogische.staatssammlung@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
URL: http://www.lrz.uni-muenchen.de/~Mineralogische.Staatssammlung
Phone: ++49-89-21804312, Fax ++49-89-21804334
Secretary: Mrs Gabriele Sieber
e-mail mailto
