Shungite is a strange, black mineraloid found in only one specific location. This geological oddity is a relatively recent discovery, but there’s a ton of misinformation spread about both its origin and some of the properties it has. On the other hand, it does have several interesting properties that are worth discussing.
So, let’s take a closer look at shungite so that you can learn the facts!
What is Shungite?
Shungite is a black stone found in only one region of Russia. It’s composition is variable, but the interesting bits consist of carbon. Shungite is generally classified by the amount of carbon it contains by weight.
Shungite is amorphous, meaning that the carbon-rich portions were cooled rapidly and don’t have a distinctive internal structure. Instead, the curiosities arise from the forms of carbon that are contained within the stone.
There are three main varieties of the stone recognized:
- High Carbon- Can contain up to 80% carbon by weight and is the “purest” form of shungite, and is generally regarded as starting at 26%
- Medium Carbon- Contains from 5-25% carbon by weight.
- Low Carbon- Contains less than 5% carbon by weight, and is generally associated with shungite bearing rocks instead of what we’d normally call by the name.
Shungite appears to be metastable. This means that the formations are stable enough that they’re not likely to turn into graphite over time, unlike most carbon-rich deposits in the Earth’s crust. Those which are higher in carbon tend to have a strong, silvery sheen while the lower carbon forms tend towards a matte black coloration.
Shungite is rather fragile, and only scores around a 3.5-4 on the Moh’s scale. While the lower carbon forms are a bit tougher, and sometimes cut into cabochons, it’s generally not seen in jewelry very often outside of some specific metaphysical uses.
Shungite’s real curiosity lies in the fact that it can contain significant, although still trace, amounts of fullerenes. Fullerenes are closed lattices of pentagonal formations of carbon. These range from buckminsterfullerene, the smallest, to larger nanostructures such as carbon nano tubes.
Shungite is actually a derivative of pyrobitumen. Bitumen, also called asphalt, is a carbon rich tar-like substance that’s widely distributed. Pyrobitumen has a slightly different structure, which results in it being brittle and fragile rather than the more flexiblem tar which characterizes most bitumen deposits.
The other elements contained in shungite are hydrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and nitrogen. You might recognize these as being characteristic of oil source rocks, and you’d be right! Still, shungite is a bit unique due to the way it was formed.
Due to its amorphous nature, one of the ways to distinguish high-grade shungite is through conchoidal fractures. While this is also a common feature of obsidian, the hardness differential makes it easy to tell them apart if you happen upon an odd black mineral sample that displays conchoidal fractures.
How is Shungite Formed?
Shungite appears to be a metamorphisized oil-source rock.
At one point, it was regarded as a sort of abiogenic petroleum formation. This doesn’t appear to be the case at all, but it’s still sometimes repeated uncritically by those who haven’t been paying attention to current literature on the subject.
The actual occurrence appears to have been an ancient lagoon and it’s apparently algae-derived for the most part. In these prehistoric waters there was teeming microscopic life, probably due to the nutrients provided by the surrounding volcanic stone. Over time these deposits became covered, and apparently went quite deep since it would have required immense heat and pressure for the metamophiszed form of the mineraloid to be created.
There are two different forms of shungite found.
In one case, it’s relatively evenly dispersed through the host rock. This is generally the source of the “low carbon” variants of shungite that are found. This is often referred to as “non-migrated” shugunite.
In other cases, which is generally where the brighter and more “pure” form of shungite is found, it appears that the prehistoric biological mass was forced into a single layer. This form is found in thin veins which criss-cross and in denser stratified layers dispersed in the host rock.
What is It Used For?
Shungite has been used since its discovery, although it only became known to the Western world at large at a later date.
It’s purported to have nullifying effects on 5G radiation and some healing effects by metaphysical proponents. The former is largely nonsense, and we’ll leave it to the reader to interpret the latter through their own beliefs.
That said, it does find use in quite a few different ways.
In older cultures, it was often used to treat skin disorders and for various ailments ranging from insomnia to diabetes. There’s some truth to these ancient uses, shungite has been found to contain various levels of anti-inflammatory antibacterial properties. It also has antioxidant properties, although they’re nowhere near as strong as they’re claimed to be by some, running about 1% of the strength of compounds like quetercin.
To this day it is used as a pigment. You’ll generally see it referred to as “carbon black” or “shungite black” when looking for traditional paints. It forms a very dark black-grey color which has made it useful for a long time.
It’s also used for water purification. Shungite is bipolar and the various internal structures do a good job at soaking up elements like heavy metals, in addition to killing or trapping problematic microbes.
There is a bit of a problem here, however, as natural shungite can contain relatively large amounts of heavy metals in the first place. These can be released back into the water, and studies have found that newly placed shungunite can actually increase the levels of heavy metals in water. Most of these rapidly fade over time, but nickel concentration appears to be particularly problematic and can remain above the maximum allowable levels for 2 weeks or more after the introduction of fresh shugunite.
That said, it’s still an effective filter but the findings essentially mean that it needs to be rinsed with a large volume of water for an extended period to be truly safe. Just dropping a chunk or pinch of powder in a glass of drinking water is going to do more harm than good, but that’s true of… basically every mineral.
Indeed, some of the published literature hypothesizes that the antimicrobial action of the mineraloid actually comes from the concentration of heavy metals contained inside.
While not overly dangerous, it’s a good thing to be aware of if you’re headed down the road of purchasing a shugunite based filter or one of the various “shugunite water” products that show up.
Where is Shungite Found?
Shugunite is primarily found in the Karelia region of Russia. Appropriately, the main deposit is found near a town called Shunga. This is the largest known deposit in the world, with estimates of the total amount of the mineraloid being as high as 250 gigatonnes.
The largest formation is found in the area of Lake Onega. Other Russian formations have been found, mainly in the Kamchatka region. It also appears that a burning coal mine created some in the area around Chelyabinsk.
Smaller deposits have been found in Congo, Austria, India, and Pakistan but don’t appear to be exploited much at this time due to the smaller size of the deposits.
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