Gail's NEW favourite of the day, PART 2

My favourite today is this specimen of chalcedony stalactites. Thankfully they arrived without damage. These caught my eye as they have a frond-like appearance that makes me think of swaying tendrils in an ocean current. Can't help myself but I have to borrow a pun ~
with fronds like these, who needs anemones?

Quartz var Chalcedony
Nasik District, Maharashtra, India
specimen size ~ 5cm x 6cm
"fronds" to 6cm

Amanda, Philip and all,

The white mineral is quartz but on a closer look, it could reveal that they are quartz pseudomorphs after baryte crystals.
They can rarely be observed through the county. Nice specimen and combo.

I hope this helps. I wish you the best in Cornwall too.

Stephanie, that's one gorgeous chalcedony. I am fond on that " ordinary " mineral.

Take care and best regards.

Paul.

Hi all. It's a pain not having decent internet. Can't even browse let alone post. Hopefully that is now all behind me.

This is a nice little elbaite that I found at Tucson. I didn't realise that the tip was blue until I got it in the right light. I thought it was just dark. A bonus.


Regards
Steve

I love this perfect little fluorite from Walworth, NY, on dolomite. 3 x 4 x 4 cm. I was reminded the other day when it fell out of my hand and landed perfectly upright on my thick sock.......whew.

Hi Stephanie....just love those chalcedony stalactites..just gave a talk on mineral treasures of the world to a group of patrons of a local regional library and one of my personal collection pics was of an open geode with a perfect zeolite crystal supported by a see of these exact type of chalcedony stalactites...thanks for sharing.

Thanks Paul and Ray. Chalcedony may be an ordinary mineral, but it can form to make extraordinary displays. I have always had a fascination for stalactites. Ray that sounds like a fabulous geode you have there. I have a number of such type myself with varying combinations of heulandite, stilbite and apophyllite. I never get tired of looking at them, but they are darn difficult to photograph!

Steve, I checked my Stak Nalas after you said that and lo and behold I found a blue tipped one too. Yours is gorgeous.

Vincent, a lovely Walworth fluorite, glad your sock-covered toes broke the fall. Phew, that was close!

I have really been appreciating all the non-zeolites that come from India, particularly the interesting varieties of chalcedony and calcite formations.

My fave today is a bi-coloured calcite, wrapped in a wreath of gyrolites, on quartz druse.

Calcite, Gyrolite, Quartz
Mumbai District (Bombay District), Maharashtra, India
Overall ~ 8cm x 5cm
Calcite 2cm

Thats a wonderful Elbaite Steve, i found it's big brother in Tucson, with three Elbaites with Albite & Quartz, haven't taken photos yet.
Vincent your blue Fluorite is truly fantastic, love the gemmy blue Fluorite,

One time in Tucson i was looking at an Arkansas Japan law Quartz, when i handed it back to the dealer he dropped it & it hit the top of his shoe & bounced onto the carpet under his table, thus saving it, i always regretted not buying that specimen, it was wonderful.

It's time for another favourite. I took a few more pics so you will all have to put up with me for a few more days

Going through some Pakistan material I took a moment to revisit this translucent purple sapphire in matrix. It is also fluorescent and glows a nice red in LUV.

Corundum var Sapphire
Aliabad, Hunza Valley, Gilgit District, Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas), Pakistan
crystal length 10mm
overall specimen approx 2.5cm





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2012 05:42AM by Stephanie Martin.

Tonight is corundum part 2: ruby. Glows a vivid red in LUV that would rival Rudolph's nose.

Corundum var Ruby with Phlogopite in marble matrix
Hunza Valley, Gilgit District, Gilgit-Baltistan (Northern Areas), Pakistan
overall ~ 7.5cm x 3.5cm
Larger crystal is ~12mm





Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2012 03:37AM by Stephanie Martin.

My favourite today is this chisel-shaped peridot crystal. The tabular habit stood out rather squarely from the others in the lot, so it was adopted on the spot!

Forsterite var Peridot
Sapat Gali (Soppat; Suppat; Sumpat; Sumput), Naran-Kaghan Valley, Mansehra District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North-West Frontier Province), Pakistan
Crystal ~ 17mm x 9mm

Today's favorite is henmilite from Japan. Specimen size 7.1 x 6.6 cm.

What a wonderful bunch of specimens and photographs!

This etched, gemmy fluorite from Esmeralda County, Nevada, was a pretty good sized group of cubes with lavender corners at one time although it was probably never as sharp as Vincent's Walworth specimen. 7x7x3 cm.



Cheers!

Steve

Great specimens everyone, thanks for sharing.
This is one that i got in Tucson, Epidote from Pakistan.
7cm X 2.0.

A cluster of fluorite with calcite from China is today's favorite. 7 x 6 cm.

© A&M

As usual - lots of lovely pics, and lovely specimens too.

Here in Lyon, we are hosting our daughter's cat - an 'adolescent' kitten - while they are away for a short holiday. She is showing considerable interest in everything in the flat - including mineral showcases!


"I might be interested in the Chessy azurite - or, perhaps, the Silverband baryte...."

Best wishes

Tim

I have been working on breaking up, photographing, and cataloging some self collected material (ok collected with my daughter Jessica). I am finding this locality I am working on now interesting.

Nontronite (small balls) at this locality usually changes from its initial color to black very quickly when exposed to sunlight. Apparently, however this change does not always occur. Here is a calcite crystal that has grown over several nontronite balls. The trapped balls are blue, whereas the exposed ones are black. At the top of the calcite crystal, however, there are several nontronite balls that are half blue and half black!




Thanks for looking
Bob

My favorite of the day is a thumbnail I picked up at one of the Tucson satellite shows this year. It is a red beryl with small bixbyite cubes in association on rhyolite matrix, from the Thomas Range, Utah, USA. It is about 1.6 cm tall, and still needs some cleaning/prep work. The color, luster, and quality are quite nice for a Thomas Range red beryl (as opposed to the more commonly seen Wah Wah Mountains, Utah red beryls).

I've always liked the elongation of the main crystal and the overall composition of this specimen. Fluorite on quartz, Esmeralda County, Nevada. 13x6x6.5 cm. Circa 2008





Cheers!

Steve



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2012 05:48PM by Stephen Rose.

I never get tired of these. Calcite, gem crystals on minor dolomite matrix. Berry Materials quarry, North Vernon, Jennings County, Indiana. Circa 1965. Specimen about 3.5 cm wide as shown.



Cheers!

Steve

A zoned fluorite crystal from the Llamas Quarry in Spain is today's favorite. 1.9 x 1.7 cm.

© A&M