A radioactive mineral containing uranium and rare earth elements, typically black or dark green in color.
Named after Christian Erdmann Clewe, a 19th-century mineral collector, with the mineral suffix -ite. First identified and classified in the 1800s as uranium geology advanced.
Cleveite was historically important because studying its radioactivity helped scientists discover helium—the mineral literally contained clues to unknown elements that transformed our understanding of the universe.
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