POTD - 04/14/2012

Hello,

Euhedral, subhedral, or ahedral?...LOL.


To absent friends...in memory...still bright.

Yes, and there is no provenance or dimensional data!!

Or size or matrix!

Definitely triclinic! (Haircut!)

Hardness scale max. 5

Defnitely idiomorphic.

Mostly in paragenesis with Katyaite.

No no, you have it all wrong. This is that new mineral the IMA recently approved called Marriedmanite. Unfortunately as you can see by the photo, this specimen has already began tarnishing a bit, a direct result of being exposed to another well known mineral, Honeycanyoutakeoutthegarbageite......

How can we cleaning this specimen - with ultrasonic cleanig system, filled with keg beer?

Paul,

The tarnish you describe is more far more common than admitted.

What I see here is one of the rariest pseudomorphs ever observed.

Jolyon pseudomorph after a Jolyon.

Rock, this could be used in the " best of " gelleries.

The force be with you all.

Paul.

This is not a mineral but rather a rock type, composed of hydroxylapatite plus various poorly described amorphous organic substances that the IMA has not yet accepted as species. Some parts might include small concretions of whewhellite, uricite or struvite, but we hope not because specimens of this rock type actually emit noises resembling groans and screams when phenocrysts of those minerals are present. Some of the hydroxylapatite might have inclusions of gold or silver, but this should not be considered native, nor does it increase the value of the specimen.

I have tried to fit the pictured specimen to the proposed "scale of naturalness", but there seems to be at least 3 possibilities:

H3 - Formed by natural processes on man-made items
H4 - Formed inadvertently by human actions on natural material
H5 - Formed deliberately by human actions on natural material

Does the contributor of the picture know more about the conditions of formation of the specimen making it possible to assign it to the right group in Mindat ?

Knut



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2012 06:08PM by Knut Eldjarn.

Knut, some B6 too.

Alfredo,

I agree. It goes to show that certain species can be hard to define properly.

Hm, I see you're all trying to putt an ID on the specimen depicted in today's POTD, well, I'm sure the specimen has been thoroughly analysed before turning into a matrimonial phase. But you'll just have to ask the expert. And the expert can most likely tell you if the chemistry of the specimen has changed since this phase change.

I say "break off a piece and PXRD it"

....Lead singer of a former boys band is trying to set up a solo career...

One definitive property is that such specimens are usually photochromic, stick them under UV light, or even the midday sun, and they turn red.