Calcite, Switzerland

Can you help make this a better article? What good localities have we missed? Can you supply pictures of better specimens than those we show here? Can you give us more and better information about the specimens from these localities? Can you supply better geological or historical information on these localities?

Calcite
CaCO₃ trigonal

Here will go a good picture of a calcite specimen from Switzerland and general remarks about the calcite from this country. Here are some url's to some of the better Swiss calcite specimens here on Mindat that can be considered for inclusion in the article. These, in most cases are just for temporary use until we can get images of the much better specimens that are almost certainly out there. We should also consider that there are probably localities out there with fine specimens that are not even mentioned on Mindat. Also in some instances there are sometimes pictures on Mindat, of specimens from a locality, but they were so ratty that I did not include them here, but there may also be really good specimens from there that we should talk about in this article.

Calcite
Switzerland

Gurnigel Mt., Gastere Valley, Kandersteg, Kander Valley, Bern, Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

Scharboda Alp, Vrin, Lugnez Valley (Lumnezia Valley), Grischun (Grisons; Graubünden), Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

Sattelegg pass, Schwyz, Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

NEAT Construction site, Amsteg, Reuss Valley, Uri, Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

St Gotthard basis tunnel (north section), NEAT Construction site, Amsteg, Reuss Valley, Uri, Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

St Gotthard Highway tunnel (north section), Göschenen, Reuss Valley, Uri, Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

Simplon Railway tunnel (north section), Simplon pass area, Brig, Wallis (Valais), Switzerland
[www.mindat.org]

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Hi Rock,

I am specialized in swiss minerals and maybe can support you for this country.
Calcite is a frequently found mineral in this country, of course, but not all localities are worth to be mentioned.
Best calcites occur in the area of the northern mountains and north of the alpine mountains, these mountains are of carbonate sediments, limestone for example, and often of jurassic age.
Best known internationally is most probably the first mentioned locality, the Gurnigel Mt. Calcite was found there since early 20th century, and the main locality was worked by different "Strahlers" until WW II. Because of using explosives and too heavy tools a lot of material was destroyed, which resulted in regulation of works shortly after WW II. From that point on only a group of people, mainly members of one family living in close village Kandersteg, was allowed to collect and work there, until today, without using explosives. This is still valid today, collecting for the public is prohibited. All specimens I photographed were collected by myself, I know the owner very well and collected together with him a couple of times.

One other locality is very important, not mentioned in your list, yet, the Gonzen: [www.mindat.org]
This iron mine is famous for the most probably biggest calcite crystals found in Switzerland. Simple rhombohedrons up to 80 cm in length, often showing gray inclusions and phantoms. History: in spring 1965 (the mine was closed in 1966) a blasting during operation opened a crystal cave of approx. 16 x 9 x 4 m dimension, full of calcite crystals, and further exploration led to another cave of similar size. More than 100 crystals had 30 cm length or more. A group of 2 x 1.3 m was rebuild in the NHM Bern and one of the biggest crystals (80 cm) is shown in the collection of Zurich Technical University (ETH Zürich).

The Piz Beverin / Wergenstein area is well known for nice calcite, as well, an alpine area mentioned in mindat.org.

Calcite is a common member of paragenesis in almost every alpine cleft, but most times not worth to be mentioned compared to the sought after smoky quartz and pink fluorite octahedrons.

Most calcites of good quality are found during tunnel constructions, e.g. the Gotthard and Simplon tunnels. These crystals are fresh because of being found in gneiss and granites (mostly) in freshly opened clefts very deep in the mountains, without erosion caused by surface influences such as surface waters, freezing and melting periods etc.

Hope this is of need for you. Let me know if you want to have more deeper details, in case above mentioned information just cratched the surface.

Christian

Addicted to high alpine mountain minerals...

Christian Bracke

Christian,
OK. Would you like to undertake to write up the Swiss calcite article and organize the pictures for it? I can see in what you just said that you know a lot more about Swiss things than I do. If you would, read the introductory remarks to the Best Mineral section and what I have written about the formatting of these articles and advice for authors and just start working. I would suggest that you start work by editing the thread reply above, that way it will always be near the top of the Swiss calcite thread. Once you have started and think you will have no further use for the URLs listed above, Ill delete all that stuff out and refer people to your article which will be just below. If you have any problems about understanding how to import images into these thread postings, just let me know and Ill help you. If you are lucky, you will have other people come along to help and make suggestions. Be generous in your responses and that will encourage more people to come and help with this insanely ambitious project.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Hi Rock,

my computer skills are very poor, but with your support I should be able to do so.
If I got you right (sorry, my english isn´t the best) such an article is different from this blog, and of course I will retype it in a more professional way.
This will take some time, will do some literature research etc.
Is there a finished article of a mineral which I could few at as a sample? A link or hind would be helpful, just to get an idea of what you expect.

Christian

Addicted to high alpine mountain minerals...

Christian Bracke

Christian
There are a lot of great articles done now, one of my favorites is adamite: [www.mindat.org], or UK Fluorite: [www.mindat.org] or mimetite: [www.mindat.org].
But they wont all be able to be produced at such a high standard of course!
Ralph

Ralph

Christian,
To some extent the format for these articles is still evolving. One of the most mature articles we perhaps have thus far is the one on Adamite or Aluminium. The aluminium article has better documentation than the adamite article, but I think the adamite article demonstrates better what we should be trying to do so far as pictures and their arrangement. Documentation is important but a lot of what I want to try and capture is information about the specimens. The ten questions that I talk about in the introductory remarks to Best minerals. In these remarks I also talk about the formatting and give some advice to prospective authors. Certainly we want to talk some about the geology and the history of the localities where the various minerals come from, but I see that as secondary to the geology and the history. The information about the specimens has always been given short shrift in the literature and this is all lost when people who know about the specimens from a particular locality die. Read the introductory remarks about what we are trying to accomplish here, look at the examples and you will see that what we are doing here is really not all that complex or hard. It may be that importing and arranging the images will be the hardest and most tedious part of the job, that that is what really brings the articles to life and will capture the initial interest of users. The writing is the easiest part I find, especially when you know a lot about the specimens from a locality. Putting it down is easy. The hard part and the part is cleaning it up and making it easy to read and documenting it. Another hard part is when you start to write about minerals and localities you don't know. How much do you know about native aluminium. When I started to write about the A minerals I immediately ran into this problem. As it turned out I didn't know anything about specimens of aluminium. I read what I could find and then started talking to others who knew more about aluminium. It was a struggle to convince myself that the stuff actually existed at all. It wasn't till I put down what I had been able to find out in one of the original articles her on mindat back a while ago in a forum that no longer exists that only the managers could see that Paval Kartashov came along and basicly said something like "Hey, dummy, don't you know about this, and don't you know about that? He knew so much more about it that I made him an author for the article. All he needed was someone to help him out with his English. It also requirrede a forum like this one where someone was struggling to write down what he knew a lot about and give him the opportunity to help out. His English is not all that great, but he really clued me in about aluminium and then a few other people chipped in with information and questions that displayed weaknesses in the article. I am sure that it will be changed and improved on in the future. But it was, as it turned out trying to write about things I didn't know about that turned out the be the most fun and a great learning experience as well. If you don't get it exactly right, people will come along and tell you where you screwed up and why what you said is in error or not the way you said it. I think that is what will make this a good project for everyone. It will allow us to pass on what we know and learn at the same time. It is not till you start to try and write about minerals that you don't know all that much about that you come to realize how little you do know and how much there is out there to learn.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock,

I think I got the point.
Once I created a text I will mail it to you for correcting language and other mistakes and restructure it in a way you think is the best.
Placing pics into the article will most probably have to be supported by you.

Let you know when I did the text, already started.

Talk to you soon,

Christian

Addicted to high alpine mountain minerals...

Christian Bracke

Christian,
Don't email me the text. Just post it here as a reply to this thread. This way the Wikipedia process gets to work its magic and everyone can have a whack telling you how dumb you are and what you should have done instead. The process is sometimes pailful as I full well know, but you get used to it and when the article is done, you will see that is much better because of the suggestions that are made here. I am a terrible speller and don't trust myself very far in that department and if it were not for the spell check programs I would not have any reputation as a writer left at all.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Rock,

okay, got my knight's armour on and am prepared to get slapped...
Have a great easter time!

Addicted to high alpine mountain minerals...

Christian Bracke