massive crystals found in warwick new york

Herschel, It didn't scratch with Calcite or Quartz.

This is the first green Spinel, I found this just down the road at a neighbors. It is about a 1/4 inch and with blue mica, chondrodite and a pinkish mineral.
Under the microscope its it very green and clear.

Glenn, those green spinels would be gahnite, and the pink mineral appears to be garnet, likely grossular.
Now look what you started, one hot spot and there goes the neighbourhood!
I'm still waiting for the blue spinels. LOL.

cheers,
stephanie

Stephanie, If its Gahanite that would mean there is Zinc but I don't think there is any Zinc here. If its green does it have to be gahanite ?

Under the microscope I found small orange spinels mixed in with the pink ones at first I thought they were just dirty or stained but they are glassy and they don't fluoress at all. This is the first larger one I found yesterday it was side by side with the pink one. They are about 3/16 of an inch.

I am totally amazed at what you continue to find there Glen. I wish i would stumble on something like that.

Glenn, I was thinking that if your formation is part of the Franklin Marble Belt then why not zinc? I can't make out the crystal habits on the the greenish-grey stuff, is it mica group or diopside or both? If you have high iron then the garnets are more likely to be almandine.

Pretty spinels!

regards,
stephanie

Glenn
You put the orange spinels thru some Super Iron Out ?
Any Iron won't allow them to fluoress.
KOR
Wayne Corwin

Glenn Rhein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks guys for the help and Steve unfortunatly
> they don't fluoress. Here's another unidenified
> crystal. Its in with the Zircons and at first I
> thought they were Zircons but they are a different
> color (brown) and shape. These are the most gemmy
> crystals I have found so far. Glass 12mm
>
>


To chime in on one of the previous photos the brown "twinned" crystal looks more like titanite to me. I've seen similar ones from ontario. They look like typical wedge shape to me in the photo.

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A buena hambre no hay pan duro

Glenn-
I found a boulder that had numerous crystals that look very similar to yours, at Sterling Hill about 3 years ago. The deep dark green crystals were on the same type matrix as yours is, without the chondrodite. One of the guys working at Sterling Hill that day identified it as Jeffersonite. He said the difference between Gahnite and Jeffersonite is that Gahnite has rounded edges similar to Franklinite. The Jeffersonite crystals come to sharp edges, similar to flourite. They are both deep dark translucent green. Hope that helps in your ID.

See you on May 5th!! The North Jersey Club Members are soooooo looking forward to this trip!!!

Jeff

To form gahnite as a minor accessory, you do not need that much zinc! Take staurolite for example, which is known to contain zinc but often is found in rocks derived from pelitic sediments that do not have too much going on in the transition metal department other than sometimes high Fe and Mn. If a rock has only several ppm Zn, this element can be concentrated where it is compatible chemically and thermodynamically. Since in marble like this, spinel group minerals readily form, we can incorporate Zn into the spinel structure making gahnite. To answer your question about it's color, Gahnite is usually dark blue-green in my experience but I guess it could technically be any color. Neither Zn or Al are chromophores so it all depends on the impurities. Since Fe can substitute nicely into this structure, I would assume that this element colors gahnite but I could be mistaken.


Also, I agree that the flattened, brown mineral on the previous page is titanite. There are extremely similar looking titanites from Ontario (I believe Bear Lake).

Byron, Amity is still full of stuff.

Wayne, I let the orange spinel sit it iron out over night and the color didn't change but now it does fluoress and its a darker red than the pink ones. Thanks for the Idea.

Thanks Jeremy, Jeff and Matt Titanite and Gahanite seem to fit well I should never doubt Stephanie !
Stephanie, I think that piece with the Gahanite has Clintonite mica and maybe Diopside as well.

How about these green radiating crystals laying on what I think is scapolite ?
and some spinels, chondrodite and maybe edenite on a couple of pieces I dipped in acid.

Glenn, your green radiating crystals are probably tremolite. Some of the tremolite in the Franklin Marble will fluoresce blue-white while other specimens do not fluoresce at all. Gary

Wouldn't tremolite only fluoresce if it were white? I suspect that greenish tremolite is usually coloured by iron, which would kill fluorescence?

Glenn, I have Tremolite/Actinolite that I found in Amity several years ago off Newport Bridge Rd that is very similar to that top picture. I had Mike Hawkins from the state Museum look at it and he agreed it is Tremolite/Actinolite. Its green and doesn't fluoresce though, which would give me the impression that its got iron and thus more likely actinolite over tremolite

Some super bright fluorescent pieces 7 by 8 inches and 6 by 8 inches. I'm lucky enough to have a few pieces on display at the Franklin show this weekend so come check them out.

Wow! Very nice, Glenn!!
I'll see you down at Franklin on Saturday.

I was at the Franklin show this past Sunday, and Glenn had a beautiful display setup in the fluorescent room. Here is the photo I took of it.

I would like to give a sincere THANK YOU! to Glenn Rhein and his family for hosting the NOJMS dig at his property yesterday. All of us had a great time and collected a lot of great mineral specimens. Your kindness and knowledge are greatly appreciated. Gary

My neighbor down the road heard about my fluorescent rocks so he came by with his amazing willimite pottery.How I understood it is he grows willimite crystals in the glazing during the firing and adds something to make them fluoress.I'll know more after I visit his workshop on Wednesday.More crazy stuff from Amity !

That's wild!

That is very cool and would make one awsome beer stine to drink from