Definition of "uraninite" []

• A complex brownish-black mineral, UO2, forming the chief ore of uranium and containing variable amounts of radium, lead, thorium, and other elements. It is isomorphous with thorianite. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Certain minerals, such as uraninite, cannot form under significant exposure to oxygen."
• "Some researchers have found that the uranium conglomerates bearing uraninite have a texture and mineralogical makeup (uraninite, pyrite, molybdenite, and sulfides) one would expect if they were deposited by hydrothermal solutions, indicating that the uranium was deposited deep in the earth, far removed from the atmosphere, similar to what is observed happening in the origin of modern and more recently formed uraninite deposits9 (which obviously occurred in an oxygenic atmosphere)."
• "Tamzek asserts that the mineral uraninite, present on the early Earth, cannot form under “significant exposure to oxygen”, however a recent publication from the Nasa Astrobiology Institute stated that its P.I. had observed the, “survival of uraninite … under an oxic atmosphere” and instability of uraninite under an oxygen-poor atmosphere, which was said to be “supporting … evidence for … an oxic Archaean atmosphere.”"