It has been an odd year for the lanthanides. After decades of sitting, quietly, in a row of their own at the bottom of the periodic table, the rare earth elements have been thrust into the limelight by numerous MSM articles.
As it turns out the REE have been a quiet favorite of geochemists for decades. They are used for everything from determining how stars make chemical elements to keeping the compact fluorescent lights on. And they are the bread and butter of numerous geochemical studies. For example, the latest issue of Geology reports rare earth concentrations in 4 of its 23 articles- and this is a general earth science publication, not a geochemistry specialist journal. Rare Earths are used to in stellar nucleosynthesis, missiles, planetary formation, phosphors, continental evolution, magnets, geochronology, neutron capture, volcanism, lasers, and gas light mantles. There is a lot to know, but I will try to start at the beginning. Their names. If you can't remember the list lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, then I suggest you use a mnemonic.
Next up, stellar nucleosynthesis, and rare earths in stars that died before the sun was born.
Rare Earth Revelry