massive crystals found in warwick new york

Scapolite is tetragonal. The crystals in the photographs appear to be monoclinic, and are very likely to be orthoclase. Scapolite will decompose in hydrochloric acid, while orthoclase will not. Also, scapolite fusibilty is 3, while orthoclase is 5. If these tests were to be tried, it would help to confirm the mineral's identity.

Hi Mickey,
Scapolite is well-known from the area. These crystals that Glenn found are definitely Scapolite. There is some orthoclase feldspar as well in the area, but the orthoclase from Amity is easily identifiable with its etches and slight sheen. In fact, they sometimes go together - I personally have found crystals of Scapolite associated together with Orthoclase from Amity and they are quite a bit different.

The first octohedrons we have found so far, they are very small only about 1/8 of an inch.
They are on a large mass of phlogopite.
Thanks again everyone for all your imput.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:42AM by Glenn Rhein.

Hey Glenn,
Looks you finally found the elusive Spinel that Amity is famous for! Hopefully you'll start finding them nice and big!

I dont know the area that well but is it possible for them to be zircons? I'm sure in the hand it would be easier to know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A buena hambre no hay pan duro

Herschel is correct. Spinel. I'm certain that the giant spinels are lurking somewhere, Glenn. Just a matter of time before you find them.

All of the specimens that you left for me turned out to be uvite tourmaline, the one we suspected might be vesuvianite was also tourmaline. The pinkish specimen that everyone was calling yttrocerite at your house was pink microcline feldspar. The blue-white fluorescent material that appears white is diopside. The scapolite is calcium dominant and is called meionite. The bright green amphibole that fluoresces yellow in the white marble that you gave to Marian is fluor-edenite. The micaceous material is phlogopite mica with chlorite. I think this was the mica they were trying to tell you was clintonite. The next time I see you I can go over the specimens and tell you which is which in case you are confused.

Just recieved this from the NYS museum. A big thanks to everyone at the museum.
A must visit to all the rock hounds



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:43AM by Glenn Rhein.

Three nice Titanites, about 1 1/4 inches each. My next cleaning project.
Happy Thanksgiving



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:44AM by Glenn Rhein.

Glenn Rhein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Three nice Titanites, about 1 1/4 inches each. My
> next cleaning project.
> Happy Thanksgiving

these should turn out nice after cleaning :) continually looking forward to your finds

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A buena hambre no hay pan duro

My oh my, this is absolutely amazing, flabbergastering, stupefying !

You sure must have a great time digging up all these beauties, so many species ! It's been said before, but you are indeed very lucky to own such a piece of land Glenn.

Thanks a lot for sharing your find with us and, of course, keep digging !

Cheers,

Aymeric

A three foot by two foot spray of tremolite on top of a boulder, really nice light blue fluorescence



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:44AM by Glenn Rhein.

The best fluorapatite we have found yet, just about 4 inches long on some really well formed crystals.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:45AM by Glenn Rhein.

If I follow this thread a while longer, I think I am going to burst ;)

This find does not cease to amaze me.

Cheers

Harry

Just goes to show that even when you believe you know everything there is to know about an area, something amazing like this pops up....

Keep up the good work, Glenn!!

Found this today with Andy Givens, I think its Clintonite and or biotite. Its very different then the other micas, its much harder and more brittle. cool stuff
Thanks for coming by Andy.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:46AM by Glenn Rhein.

Some weird yard rocks, first one is marble and weathered crystals ? The other is marble and I think Quartz



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:47AM by Glenn Rhein.

that last one is a real wierd one glenn!

This one weighs over forty pounds and is bigger than a basketball, Its just a mass of straw like crystals. Its dirty but has slight light blue fluorescence.
Tremolite ? In the lawn garden or back on the rock wall ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2011 01:48AM by Glenn Rhein.

This is certainly the thread of the year here in my opinion. Captivating and astonishing and cool that its in NY where I am. But, now that Glenn has found all this and mineral specimens are making it to museums and such there certainly needs to be a name associated with this occurance...what neat name have you decided upon for this occurance? Glenn's back yard just doesn't seem to cut it. And maybe Ive missed it, but whats the occurance name ?

They look like tremolites, yes, and the color of fluorescence fits. Probably a bluish gray to grayish blue, right? Look for cleavage parallel to the length of the crystals -- if you see two sets of cleavage surfaces at angles of about 120 and 60 degrees it's an amphibole, and probably tremolite. Also look at daylight color on a fresh surface. Tremolite from the Franklin Marble is normally pale to medium gray.