I finally got out collecting again yesterday! Been weeks since last trip out. I must admit I had a trip to Tvedalen three weeks ago, without reposting, but there where absolutely nothing to find and I forgot my camera… I had a road cut stop before that, to pick up some catapleiites that’s what has happened the last months.

But yesterday!!! That was a day to write about, wonderful weather and good company with my friend Knut Edvard. He offered me the possibility to go out with him in his boat to some of the islands in Langesundsfjorden. The fjord is truly the paradise on earth for a mineral collector!



The first island to stop at was Teineholmen. Most known for the hainite. It was first thought to be götzenite, but further studies proved it to be hainite. We didn’t find any. There was one lump with something that might be, but it was pretty altered so it can very well be mosandrite instead. But we didn’t leave the small pegmatite empty handed, there where both astrophyllite and rosenbuschite to be found.




After the hainite pegmatite we moved a couple of meter further to another part of the island, rich in pegmatites. There where mostly the same minerals as at the hainite pegmatite, but even richer in rosenbuschite. Beside good rosenbuschite I found some nice astrophyllite crystals in annite, those will make good micros. We also found some thorite of the orangite variety and masses of eudialyte in these pegmatites.

After Teineholmen we went sightseeing at the Skudesunsskjærene, two skerries just north of Teineholmen. Both skerries are protected as natural heritage and all collecting of minerals are strictly forbidden! But it’s still possible to go mineral hunting with the camera, and there are some nice minerals to bee seen. There are both nice samples of eudialyte and tadzhikite-(Ce) in the pegmatite blocks lying around.



Kjeøya was the next island we went to, here also without hammer. On this island there are several cottages, and to keep the peace with the owners of the cottages we went gently, and took only some loose pegmatite samples. Kjeøya are known for the best melanocerite-(Ce) found in the area, but we saw no signs of this rare mineral.
The samples I brought with me where rich in astrophyllite. Knut Edvard picked up a nice catapleiite sample.

After having lunch at Kjeøya, we went to the last destination for the day, the largest of the Barkeviksskjærene islands/skerries. Here we found more samples of nice astrophyllite, some mosandrite and brownish orange crystals that we didn’t managed to identify. Perhaps låvenite?




I still haven unwrapped most of the samples collected this wonderful day, so there might be a lot more interesting hiding in the bags. So here this blog ends, and my work with the samples starts!

In order to leave comments to this blog post, you must be registered