Gail's NEW favourite of the day, PART 2

Amethyst with "skunk" calcites is today's favorite from Brazil. 14.4 x 9.4 cm.

© A&M

Love that name, "skunk calcites."

Bob Harmon's postings of Indiana geodes have spurred me to look through some boxes of old specimens. This one is from the Harrodsburg area in Monroe County, Indiana, and was collected from the excavations related to the construction of the spillway for the Monroe County Lake system in 1966. The geode contains quartz, pyrite cubes, a barite crystal and a dark mass of bright, cellular pyrite that may be pseudomorph after ankerite. The face of the larger part of the specimen measures 4.5x3 cm.



Cheers!

Steve

Hi stephanie.

Thank you for the reply. Always glad to help mineral friends.
What I didn't tell is that the schalenblende is much harder too than the manganese oxides. Manganes oxide also gives a black streak and schalenblende is very ligt beige.

I am happy you like my postings.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

Hi Steve,
I would post a pic. of the scepter but my limited computer/photo skills prevents that.Peace,
SK

This is my today's favorite: A large frosted white complex crystal of apophyllite rests on a mound of other apophyllite and cream coloured stilbite.

Size: 8.8 x 6.1 x 6.8 cm





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2012 04:13AM by Xiao-dong Xu.

Xiao-dong Xu - a beautiful apophyllite "white rose", simply stunning.

AM - Very cool and curious skunk calcites! What is the black mineral causing the stripes?

Paul, thanks for the streak tip.

Stephen, your stuff is incredible, and you too Bob!

regards,
stephanie

Stephanie,

I believe that the black stripes are due to inclusions of goethite.

AM

Stephanie Martin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> AM - Very cool and curious skunk calcites! What is
> the black mineral causing the stripes?
>
> regards,
> stephanie

Thanks AM, interesting and beautful piece, and great photo as always!

cheers,
stephanie

A recent addition to our collection, nice miniature from Pakistan.

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

A long time field collector friend working the Southwest Harrodsburg road cut in May 2005 found this large geode specimen. Now in my collection, it is today's favorite and one of my best....... period! It measures about 20 cm x 18 cm and weighs over 7 kg! There is a very lustrous color zoned and gem quality barite measuring about 4.8 cm x 1.5 cm x 0.5 cm thick and a nearby isolated and perfectly terminated 6.5 cm x 2.3 cm calcite rhomb. Several hi end dealers suggest sacrificing the geode and trimming the specimen to make just the 2 crystals on quartz specimen. They think it would significantly enhance the monetary value, but I will keep the geode intact as is (I have the whole geode including the cap).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2012 02:58PM by BOB HARMAN.

Bob,

Great barite specimen; they are so hard to find undamaged. Many years ago I collected in the area with Harry Sering an Indianapolis area dealer. He found a few things but I didn't have much luck that day.

Very few collectors, to my knowledge, have good specimens of these American classics in their collections.

By the way, did you know Harry Sering? He eventually moved his business to Morgantown and passed away in the early 1980s. He was the person responsible for bringing in about a ton of those Dravites from Yinnietharra, Australia in the late 1960s and actually bought the entire production. from the miners.

Best wishes,

Joe

Bob,

Another great specimen from the Heartland! Thanks for posting.

Here is a geode from the location on Rt.37 north of Bloomington in Monroe County, Indiana that produces the aragonites that are so well known. The specimen contains a typical assortment of calcites and dark brown ankerite or ferroan dolomite with a coatings of calcite and or aragonite. The large, cleaved calcite is greenish because of hundreds of contained very fine filaments of altered millerite. Millerite from this location seems to be most abundant in a small zone where it is almost always enclosed in late calcite but ranges in alteration stage from bright, unaltered to greenish to a medium orange color. We speculated that the abundance of Ni in the area might be related to concentration by organisms prior to consolidation of the sediments.


Larger section is 8x6x6 cm. Circa 1965

Cheers!

Steve

Favourite today, this lovely Rhodochrosite from Peru.

Gail Patricia Copus Spann

Having a large and complete Indiana geode collection demands some specimens that are more visually interesting than visually stunning. These 3 pix are of Indiana geodized fossils. They have been described several times in the recent past including a Rocks and Minerals article several years ago by Jeff Smith and a description in the late June Culp Zeitner's book on geodes. They are quite common at several locations where I field collect and at other private land and non-collector allowed locations in Southern Indiana. Several species of shells, brachiopods, gastropods, horn corals and crinoid stems, a crinoid head and a cephalopod are shown. Some of these show portions of the original fossil shell, making for jigsaw puzzle like surfaces. These specimens vary in size from 1" to 5", but at other sites they can be greater than 1 foot in size. These geodized fossils are most often solid, but occasionally they are hollow and contain beautiful quartz crystals. Recognizing that these are not one specimen, I prefer to treat them as one related grouping and they are my favorite of the day. Enjoy.....and great pix everyone!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2012 04:26PM by BOB HARMAN.

Gale, what a great rhodo! One can really appreciate what a rare thing this represents when checking some of Rock's picture posts. And anyone can get a more detailed idea of what is involved by accessing his website for a great travelog about one of his trips to SA.

Great geode-fossils, Bob. For the most part while collecting in Indiana when we found a decent fossils we traded them for minerals but this one crossed the boundary into the mineral realm. The sphalerite replacement has minor alterations to smithsonite and the interior shows a coiled structure that may be part of a spiralia. Some original shell material is present on both anterior and posterior surfaces. From the Harrodsburg Limestone, aragonite cut, SR37 North of Bloomington. 9x5.5x4 cm. Circa 1964.





Cheers!

Steve

Incredible specimens being shown again, especially your Aqua Gail, I really do have a soft spot for Pakistani minerals.

Strange little Tourmaline from Paprok, Afghanistan. A first for me where the host almost seems to outshine the specimen.

Calcite knob with celestine from Mexico. 6 x 3 x 2.7 cm.

© A&M

Although I self-collect and specialize in Indiana geodes, occasionally I buy other geodes. This huge Madagascar celestine geode tweaked my interest at the 2002 Tucson show. The exterior measures 26 cm x 22 cm; the interior cavity measures 20 cm x 17 cm and the doubly terminated crystal towards the front measures 9.5 cm x 1.7 cm. The geode weighs 20 kg (about 45lbs)! As we had flown to Phoenix that year, my daughter who lived in Phoenix that year, "baby sat" the specimen for 6 months till we drove out there later in the year; then we took it home. It was difficult for me to photograph as there was little contrast between the blues on all the crystals. Like amethyst cathedrals from Brazil, there often are a million of these celestine geodes to choose from at many of the larger mineral shows. This one has always seemed to me to be better than all the rest. Many mediocre examples are really overpriced; if buying one, make sure the main crystals are centrally located and stand out without dings and the whole cavity is well and evenly displayed. A recent article in Min Rec discussed these specimens with many pix of geodes and cropped crystal specimen portions from some of them. MY FAVORITE OF THIS DAY ENJOY!

That is a nice celestite geode, Bob. I wonder how many that size are under water at the Lehigh quarry now?

Today my post is of a somewhat battered copper in calcite from Northern Michigan. This specimen belonged to my grandfather who died in 1943. Sometime between then and 1949, when my grandmother died and the family home was sold, my eldest sister selected a few things that pleased her from his cabinets and these specimens ultimately became mine. The bulk of his collection was, quite literally, taken to the dump.


Copper in and on calcite, Michigan. 3.5x3x3 cm.

Cheers!

Steve

Great specimens, all. I just discovered the "Follow Topic / Email me about replies to this topic" checkboxes turned off again (at least 5th time since thread started). Anyone else having this problem?