Gail's NEW favourite of the day, PART 2

Andrew, congrats on obtaining an elusive specimen. It is a mighty fine one at that.

David, nice rosettes! I agree there has been a lot of help in regards to photography...still working at getting better and being consistent and for this you are all kind to put up with my posts.

Although the cubes are incomplete on this specimen they still make for an interesting formation, so it is my favourite today.

Calcite on Chalcedony (stalactite)
Nasik District, Maharashtra, India
overall approx 8cm x 5cm
pillar approx 3cm
larger cube approx 12mm x12mm (incomplete)

Always a pleasure to browse the posts. You guys have such interesting specimens!

Today's favorite is a cluster of fluorite with pyrite and muscovite from Kazakhstan. 5.1 x 3.5 cm.

© A&M

Stephanie,
your calcite is very nice. But id doesn't looks like pseudostalactite. It's looks more like first generation calcite covered by quartz with syntaxial calcite of second generation. Very nice.
Tomek

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"Spirifer" Geological Society

Hi Tomek, thank you for your observations, I will take away the reference as stalactite.

stephanie

Steph/Tomasz;

I can't get my arms around this piece. I don't understand the reference to the stalactite--what I'm seeing is host rock that over which id deposited some unknown material that forms the base for the fluorites and which is then dissolved and replaced by the micro quartz. I see no way for the fluorites to form otherwise...

John

John- I was refering to the 'pillar' as a stalactite. No fluorites on this piece, only chalcedony (over basalt) and calcites. The chalcedony covering the basalt is blue tinted and the pillar is white, adding to the confusion.

steph

Haven't had the opportunity to look at or post to this thread for a while. Some very nice specimens. Thanks for sharing.

Here's my latest contribution - chalcophyllite from Majuba Hill. Chalcophyllite is one of my favourite mineral species. Something to do with the colour and form...


Regards
Steve

John, as you can see even on photos quartz is covering light yellow calcite. This is very typical for Maharastra specimens.
Tomek

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"Spirifer" Geological Society

LOL, my bad--substitute calcite for fluorite. The rhombs look like cubes. But I still don't understand -- are you saying there's another calcite sandwiched between the two--and totally covered by chalcedony? How else would you otherwise get 2nd generation growth occuring between 1st generation crystals?

John

John - yes that's what Tom is saying. If you look more carefully in the close up in the foreground there are some light yellowish crystals which are calcite, hard to notice them under the white quartz druse but they are there, and then the pillar form with more white quartz and the darker generation calcite cubes.

steph

Today my favourite is this smoky quartz scepter. Precise locality not available.

Smoky Quartz
Namaqualand, Northern Cape Province, South Africa
approx 4cm x 2.5cm

There are quite a few images of acicular or filiform pyrite from the Clackamas River localities on Mindat, but none that look like this one. This specimen doesn't have a specific locality, just Clackamas River, and was acquired by Joan Lamond (Melbourne) from Sid Sparkes in Vancouver in 1985. The original pyrite, now altered to goethite, has taken a couple of right angle turns, and produced a pair of octahedral pyrite crystals. An interesting specimen! Picture width is 4mm.


Regards
Steve

Steve, I'm a chalcophyllite fan too - especially when it is self collected! I have therefore elected this piece as my favourite of today... I'm not really cheating with the second 'photo - I hope. It is on the same specimen - a little cyanotrichite tangle. The largest chalocphyllite crystals are about 1 mm across; as is the cyanotrichite bunch. The specimen is from Cap Garonne, Le Pradet, Var, France and was collected on the 28 August 1964. Memories, memories!

Cheers

Tim

This whole favorites thread never ceases to amaze me! Anyhow, here's a calcite I got from Blake Barnett, or Austin Texas, after practically holding him down and twisting his arm to let me buy this from his collection! ha ha.
Calcite, China. No details as I haven't catalogued it yet, but it's about 3 inches tall.



Gail Patricia Copus Spann

Here's a nice little piece that just came in the mail...
The snowy quartzite make a nice background, no?
My wife thinks it would make a nice pendant.
The situation is tense.


John

A nice litte Victorian azurite...


...and Season's Greetings to my friends around the world...



Regards
Steve

Just spent the weekend going through our thumbnail collection and Thought I'd share this specimen here that was collected by John Lindell of Seattle Washington back in 1982.

Found this little thumbnail crystal at the London show this past November. We figured we'd never find stibnite crystals from China that would fit in a perky - assumed that only the larger and showier material was given any consideration, but we were wrong! What I really like about this little piece is that it has a growth irregularity - from the first angle, it looks nice and straight, but you can see that there is a slight "kink" in the crystal growth. I can hear my grade school teacher admonishing me to "stand up straight, young lady, don't be a slouch!"

Thank you everyone, this thread is such a joy!

Gail Patricia Copus Spann