page_title: Ann Sabina
section_title: Discoveries
hierarchical_section_title: Ann Sabina / Discoveries
caption_attribution_description: English: Sabinaite (FOV 4.7 x 4.9 mm) Locality: Poudrette quarry (Demix quarry; Uni-Mix quarry; Desourdy quarry; Carrière Mont Saint-Hilaire), Mont Saint-Hilaire, Rouville RCM, Montérégie, Québec, Canada Description: Found 1997/8. MOB coll. Deutsch: Sabinait (Sichtfeld 4,7 x 4,9 mm) Fundort: Steinbruch Poudrette (Demix, Uni-Mix, Desourdy), Mont Saint-Hilaire, Rouville RCM, Montérégie, Québec, Kanada
context_page_description: Ann Phyllis Sabina Stenson was a Canadian mineralogist, gemmologist, teacher, public servant and popular science author. Sabina has been instrumental in the development of X-ray diffraction as a means of identifying minerals. She is credited with the discovery of a variety of different minerals and currently has one named in her honor: Sabinaite. a string of educational books and guides that focus on the study of numerous minerals throughout Canada, and has been important in the creation of a number of geological associations.
context_section_description: As part of her research, Sabina and a student assistant visited the Francon quarry located in Montreal on July 19, 1966 in order to study and contribute information for the Ontario to Lac St. Jean Quebec guidebook (GSC Paper 67-51). Women were not allowed to use the quarry due to security and insurance reasons, so Sabina took liberty and paid a young man working in the quarry 5 dollars and asked that he bring her samples. In her research, she noticed some small, yellow crystals in the retrieved samples and upon further testing she discovered that the mineral was not contained within her X-ray powder diffraction database; thus she had discovered an entirely new mineral. Sabina named this new mineral Weloganite, named after the founder of the GSC, Sir William Logan. The local news later reported the discovery but Sabina was not initially appropriately credited with the discovery.  Ann continued to frequent the quarry for research and quickly discovered four more previously unknown minerals. By the end of her examination of the Fracon quarry, Ann Sabina was recognized for collecting 9 of 10 new mineral specimens by 1990: Weloganite, Dresserite, Hydrodresserite, Strontiodresserite, Sabinaite, Franconite, Doyleite, Hochelagaite, Montroyalite and Voggite. In 1980, the mineral Sabinaite, was named in her honor.
caption: Sabinaite, a carbonate mineral named for Ann Sabina in 1980
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