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PhotosPOTD 17 Nov 2023

17th Nov 2023 08:26 UTCRoy Starkey 🌟 Manager

A really striking image and interesting crystallography!
Great pic!
Congratulations!
Roy

17th Nov 2023 08:35 UTCErik Vercammen Expert

Beautiful picture. Should have been reserved for 25 December.

17th Nov 2023 11:45 UTCGuenter Blass

Congratulations Fred!
A beautiful photo.

Particularly interesting and remarkable:
The thin brownish, twig-like, curved structure on which the skeletal crystals have apparently grown. I have never seen this before on the perovskite skeletons of the volcanic Eifel.

Isn't the direction of growth of the skeletons only determined by the crystal structure of the perovskite?
What is the opinion of the experts on this?

Günter Blass



17th Nov 2023 14:54 UTCWayne Corwin

What is the "Brown Twig" mineral?

17th Nov 2023 15:19 UTCJames Murowchick Expert

Since all of the perovskite blocks are in the same orientation, it suggests to me that they are epitaxially nucleated on the "twig", so either the twig is another morphology of perovskite or something with a closely-related structure.

17th Nov 2023 15:29 UTCJames Murowchick Expert

Upon enlarging the image, it looks like the twig might be  some acicular or dendritic phase that got coated with the light brown mineral.  The larger perovskite blocks might be continuation of growth from the initial dendrite, but growth after the brown coating formed.  The brown coating might have left "windows" for continued perovskite growth.
   It's a fantastic specimen and photo (my first reaction was "Wow")--I'd love to look at it under the SEM!

17th Nov 2023 16:57 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

Fabulous specimen and photo!  With everyone else, I'm also curious about the nature of the organically curved branches on which the perovskite has grown in perfect orientation.

Obviously the perovskite is the star of the show, but what of the rest of the cast--what are the other minerals present:  the clear octahedron, the white ball, the clear sticks?

17th Nov 2023 17:21 UTCGuenter Blass

The clear "oktahederon" is gismondine!
The white ball can be phillipsite, chabasite or others. It is only not recognizable from the photo.
Clear sticks are Apatite!
Top right probably Nepheline.
Bottom center probably Sanidin

Günter Blass

17th Nov 2023 19:56 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

It would be good to note the gismodine etc in the description. It’s a fabulous picture but I did wonder about these other crystals too.

18th Nov 2023 01:59 UTCHerwig Pelckmans

Ralph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager  ✉️

It’s a fabulous picture but I did wonder about these other crystals too.
 Same here.
Thanks, Günter, for describing the other minerals. If a manager could add the link to this thread to the caption of the photo, indicating something like "for more info on this specimen, see ..." that would be nice.

It would be very interesting to positively ID the "brown twig" material since there seems to have been some kind of interaction between the black perovskite and the "brown twigs".

If I remember correctly, the whole black perovskite "tree" can be regarded as one single crystal: the internal crystal structure continues without interuption from the bottom to the top of the tree, so to speak. That is also why all the faces of the small cubes are oriented the same way (and thus reflect light the same way).

So IMHO the perovskite did not grow on the brown twigs, because that would have caused different orientations for the small cubes. I think the perovskite grew along with the brown twigs; that "along the way" they somehow provided support for the further development of both. An example of "mineral symbiosis" ?

29th Dec 2023 16:08 UTCGuenter Blass

I examined the sample with the perovskite skeleton crystals from the photo of the day from Nov. 17, 2023 (Photo ID: 1255606) with EDX (see discussion at Mindat).

I took a sample of the powdery, brownish, curved material directly under the perovskite skeleton. I took a 2nd sample from a light brown, long prismatic crystal stalk with a round cross-section in the immediate vicinity of the perovskite.

At the point directly below the perovskite, I found some fluorapatite and an unidentifiable Mg-Al silicate.

The brownish crystal has the same chemical composition (Mg-Al-silicate).

Analysis data are available!

I found palygorskite as the only mineral with the ratio of Mg:Al:Si of 2:1:4 that I measured.

Due to the powdery morphology, however, I rather suspect that the brownish, powdery material is not palygorskite, but an X-ray amorphous weathering product.

Unfortunately, however, there is not enough preparable material for a P- or S-XRD.

 

Remark:

Interestingly, I have found an identical chemical composition with Mg:Al:Si of 2:1:4 in earlier EDX analyses of light brown, lathy tabular but X-ray amorphous crystal formations from the Rother Kopf.



29th Dec 2023 21:45 UTCRalph S Bottrill 🌟 Manager

The composition could fit a smectite, maybe an Al-bearing saponite? They often form wirey structures in vesicles.

17th Nov 2023 20:41 UTCDon Windeler

I was thinking about posting something with reference to this shot as well -- one of the coolest POTDs I've seen in a while!

D.
 
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