Ytterby
Ytterby is a village on Resarö, an island in Sweden, known for a quarry whose minerals led to the discovery of several chemical elements.
Ytterby mine: A feldspar and quartz quarry near Ytterby, Sweden, whose unusual minerals yielded several newly identified elements. Its quarry became the source of the minerals that made Ytterby famous.
Yttrium: A silvery transition metal with atomic number 39, named after Ytterby. It was the first element named for the village.
Gadolinite: A complex silicate mineral containing rare-earth elements, iron, and beryllium, first found near Ytterby. Its composition concealed several elements later separated by chemical analysis.
Naming of chemical elements: The conventions and practices used to assign names and symbols to chemical elements. Ytterby supplied the names of four elements, an exceptional geographic legacy.
Johan Gadolin: A Finnish chemist who analyzed a mineral from Ytterby and identified the substance later called yttria. His analysis of Ytterby’s black mineral began the chain of rare-earth discoveries.
Terbium: A silvery rare-earth metal with atomic number 65, named after Ytterby. Its name is another direct memorial to the village.
Rare-earth elements: The 17 elements comprising scandium, yttrium, and the lanthanides. Many elements identified from Ytterby minerals belong to this chemical group.
Swedish mining industry: The extraction and processing of minerals and metals in Sweden. Ytterby’s quarry belongs to a long Swedish tradition of mineral extraction.
Ytterbite: The historical name for gadolinite, a mineral first described from a specimen found near Ytterby. This mineral from the local quarry supplied the material for Gadolin’s analysis.
Erbium: A silvery rare-earth metal with atomic number 68, named after Ytterby. Its name derives from the same village that supplied its source mineral.