Antarcticite © Click here for a list of articles that are not under construction but have had at least their first drafts finished. This article is a place holder and needs someone to take it in hand and finish the first draft. If you would like to take this article in hand, leave a reply message below or contact Rock Currier via private message by clicking on the PM button next to my name at the top of the article. Click here to view Best Minerals A and here for Best Minerals A to Z and here for Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles. Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities? Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Antarcticite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Antarcticite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Antarcticite that will go into the article. Antarcticite CaCl2 6H2O Trigonal Antarcticite, Bristol Dry Lake, San Bernardino Co., California, USA FOV 2cm© Marek Patúš Antarcticite Hard core rare species collections. United States California, San Bernardino County, Bristol Dry Lake. SE ¼ sec. 32, T. 5N., 12E., S.B., B.M. The best locality is apparently just a few meters from the country road from Amboy to Twentynine Palms. It is found in long thin white hexagonal prismatic crystals up to 20 cm and can best be collected here during the winter months. The mineral, potassium chlorite, is unstable above 86 degrees Fahrenheit and deliquescent? If you want to collect this mineral in its natural state you need to collect it when the brine is less than 86 degrees. This is best done in the Fall after a long hot rainless summer when the pools have experienced maximum evaporation and are not likely to be diluted with rain water. It is best to collect them late at night or better yet in the early morning hours when the brine is coolest and the crystals have had maximum time to form. You get a flashlight and wade around in the mud and collect the stuff. But to preserve it you need to put it in an ice chest where it can be kept cool enough to keep it from melting. At home you can put it in your refrigerator to keep it solid. I have a friend who thought he might make some money selling this mineral. He thought he would shortcut this entire process by using chemically pure calcium chloride and place a little of the saturated solution in little glass vials with a string or chain attached so that they could be worn as pendants. When the owner of the pendant got home he or she would simply put it in the refrigerator to cool down and recrystallize the antarcticite. In addition he figured that there would be some market for this product among the rare species collectors, all ten of them. I told him that I, as a mineral dealer, would not be interested in handling this item but did not want to discourage him from trying it. I suggested that he could take an ice chest around to the mineral shows containing the vials so that he could show potential customers the antarcticite in the solid state. It was unlikely that he could sell little glass bottles containing only a clear liquid that looked like water. Well, the above will provide the reader with some of the craziness that sometimes afflicts mineral collectors, dealers and curators who often march to the beat of a very distant drum. [Rock Currier 2009] Click here to view Best Minerals A and here for Best Minerals A to Z and here for Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles. http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,138433,138433#msg-138433 Tue, 21 May 2013 13:22:07 +0000 Phorum 5.2.15a http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,138433,138433#msg-138433 Antarcticite http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,66,138433,138433#msg-138433
©


Click here for a list of articles that are not under construction but have had at least their first drafts finished.

This article is a place holder and needs someone to take it in hand and finish the first draft. If you would like to take this article in hand, leave a reply message below or contact Rock Currier via private message by clicking on the PM button next to my name at the top of the article.



Click here to view Best Minerals A and here for Best Minerals A to Z and here for Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles.


Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities?

Below are some preliminary notes I have made about Antarcticite. This entry and thread has been made as a place holder for information that you will hopefully contribute about Antarcticite. It should be in no way be thought of as a claim I have staked out to write about this mineral, and in fact is an invitation for someone to step forward and create the article about this mineral. If you are so inclined and have questions about the format that such an article should have, go the The welcome topic at the top of the Best Minerals forum and read what has been posted there. Also take a look at some of the more mature articles that have already been written like Rhodochrosite, Adamite, Millerite etc. You will need also to pick out other images of Antarcticite that will go into the article.



Antarcticite
CaCl2 6H2O Trigonal
Antarcticite, Bristol Dry Lake, San Bernardino Co., California, USA FOV 2cm© Marek Patúš



Antarcticite Hard core rare species collections.
United States
California, San Bernardino County, Bristol Dry Lake. SE ¼ sec. 32, T. 5N., 12E., S.B., B.M.
The best locality is apparently just a few meters from the country road from Amboy to Twentynine Palms. It is found in long thin white hexagonal prismatic crystals up to 20 cm and can best be collected here during the winter months. The mineral, potassium chlorite, is unstable above 86 degrees Fahrenheit and deliquescent?

If you want to collect this mineral in its natural state you need to collect it when the brine is less than 86 degrees. This is best done in the Fall after a long hot rainless summer when the pools have experienced maximum evaporation and are not likely to be diluted with rain water. It is best to collect them late at night or better yet in the early morning hours when the brine is coolest and the crystals have had maximum time to form. You get a flashlight and wade around in the mud and collect the stuff. But to preserve it you need to put it in an ice chest where it can be kept cool enough to keep it from melting. At home you can put it in your refrigerator to keep it solid.

I have a friend who thought he might make some money selling this mineral. He thought he would shortcut this entire process by using chemically pure calcium chloride and place a little of the saturated solution in little glass vials with a string or chain attached so that they could be worn as pendants. When the owner of the pendant got home he or she would simply put it in the refrigerator to cool down and recrystallize the antarcticite. In addition he figured that there would be some market for this product among the rare species collectors, all ten of them. I told him that I, as a mineral dealer, would not be interested in handling this item but did not want to discourage him from trying it. I suggested that he could take an ice chest around to the mineral shows containing the vials so that he could show potential customers the antarcticite in the solid state. It was unlikely that he could sell little glass bottles containing only a clear liquid that looked like water. Well, the above will provide the reader with some of the craziness that sometimes afflicts mineral collectors, dealers and curators who often march to the beat of a very distant drum.
[Rock Currier 2009]



Click here to view Best Minerals A and here for Best Minerals A to Z and here for Fast Navigation of completed Best Minerals articles.]]> Rock Currier Best Minerals A Mon, 18 May 2009 04:50:17 +0000