Mineral Y from Crestmore Quarry?

a friend of mine recently acquired a fluorescent specimen labeled simply Mineral Y from Crestmore Quarry, California. The fluorescence is purple (sw) Appears as a whitish coating on rock. Anyone have any idea what this stuff is?

Chris

Hi Chris,

I just won a piece on eBay - from the description:

Mineral Y refers to tentative names given to unidentified Crestmore
minerals by Josoeu Munooctt in his 1961 article in the "American
Mineralologist". He describes mineral Y as a "copper bearing
calcium silicate hydrate". I have not been able to find a newer name
for this mineral. It has a very distinctive fluorescence among Crestmore
Minerals so should be fairly easy to identify if you can find newer
references.

I don't have a copy of that article, but I hope this helps!

Alan

I also have a sample of mineral Y as well as Mineral Z that came from Fred DeVitos collection. Does anyone have any further information on mineral Z?

Dr. Kampf of the Natural History Museum of los Angeles County reports that Miner Y is equivalent (or very similar) to Whelanite.

John Betts

Added.

I presume the article referred to is Am Min 46(3,4):245, "Crestmore, past and present" by Joseph Murdoch, available here: [www.minsocam.org]