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PhotosWulfenite ?? from the Pasaic Pit (SH NJ)
24th Mar 2012 17:32 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
Click on topic header for photo and details.
24th Mar 2012 18:43 UTCDon Saathoff Expert
The angles of the modified faces on Schaiffli"s Iranian wulfenite appear, to my eye, to be 45deg whereas the angles on your tabular XL appear closer to 60deg which would indicate hexagonal symmetry as opposed to tetragonal symmetry.
waddya think....
Don
24th Mar 2012 19:09 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
Well - wulfenite would be a real long shot for the Passaic Pit. So you may well be right.
But I still don't think it's zincite - it would be just to weird for this environment.
The only other thing I can think of that's plausible for the Passaic Pit is greenockite. But I have trouble believing that too.
Anyway - thanks for the input.
Modris
24th Mar 2012 19:46 UTCJeff Weissman Expert
24th Mar 2012 20:13 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
It was found in highly weathered material with galena, malachite, aurichalcite and a few other mystery micros.
The matrix looks like lean franklinite ore. But the calcite barely fluoresces and (if I recall) the "franklinite is magnetic. There is also some very intensely fluorescent fluorite - tiny but beautiful golden yellow. (None of these is on this particular little fragment.)
One thing for sure; It's NOT the wulfenite matrix described by Dunn.
I found it near the entrance to the Pit (to the right as you walked in - but that was many years ago and they may have changed the entrance by now). My recollection is either a very large boulder or an outcrop. But who knows if it's really "native" to the Pit.
Modris
24th Mar 2012 21:37 UTCChester S. Lemanski, Jr.
Not definitive, just an opinion. I recall back in the 1960's when the mine was active. Stuff would come out and someone would examine it and present an opinion of what it was. Several such "finds" were greeted with the statement that it couldn't be since that was never found here. At that time there were 190 some species on the list, and some of those would prove to be invalid. Now there are some 360+ validated species, including some very unlikely and bizarre minerals. Many things are possible.
24th Mar 2012 21:43 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
I had another look at the specimen and - to my surprise (since it is so tiny) I found some more stuff on it: galena, probable cerussite and - most interestingly - two really tiny xls that are square (more or less) and thicker (relative to width at any rate.
I don't know if I can photograph either of them but I'll give it a shot. They sure look like wulfenites to me.
Modris
24th Mar 2012 22:06 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
I managed to grab a quick and dirty single focus shot of one of two the tiny rectangular xls on the specimen.
I pposted it as a child of the original but here is a direct link: rectangular example
Modris
24th Mar 2012 22:45 UTCChester S. Lemanski, Jr.
Great - wulfenite! I would submit it as a tidbit for The Picking Table.
Chet
24th Mar 2012 23:13 UTCDon Saathoff Expert
Don
24th Mar 2012 23:40 UTCModris Baum 🌟 Expert
OK. Thanks. That makes me feel even more confident that it's wulfenite.
As for the angle. I'll be darned if I can tell looking through the scope. Just too smal and I can't orient the xl to get a better view of the angle.
Modris
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