A New Find of Albite from the C.K. Williams & Co. Quarry in Easton, Pennsylvania
by Gary Moldovany

A few word about the locality: the C.K. Williams & Co. Quarry, located near the City of Easton, Northampton County, Pennsylvania is part of a small complex of quarries located along Chestnut Hill which is just west of the Delaware River on Route 611. A part of it was formerly known as the Sherrer or Verdolite Quarry. The main purpose of the quarry was mining for serpentine or "verdolite" used for ornamental building purposes. The quarry was also exploited for the mineral tremolite, which was used as mineral pulp additives in paint and paper products. Slabs of the ornamental material were used in the Alberta, BC Parliament House. The Easton Post Office has floor tiles made from serpentine and dolomite from the Royal Green Marble Quarry, across the River in Phillipsburg, NJ. That quarry is part of the same geological formation as C.K. Williams.

The quarry became fully operational in the 1930's under the management of Abraham Sherrer. There were several smaller quarries that were taken over and consolidated by the C.K. Williams Company. The land was purchased by the famed mineralogist Arthur Montgomery in 1953 who was a professor at Lafayette College in Easton. He later conveyed the property to Lafayette College. The quarry is presently owned by the City of Easton and is a popular collecting spot for local rockhounds. Many interesting specimens of eastonite, tremolite and serpentine can still be collected there. Across the road, on the riverbank,
is the remains of the dump area which also contains considerable mineralization.

The geological setting of the quarry is a highly altered limestone, recrystallized into marble and containing solutions of serpentine group minerals. The solutions crystallized into a pegmatite containing quartz and feldspar. Further alteration, weathering and ground water intrusion resulted in a rather complex mineralogy with serpentine, tremolite, eastonite, brucite and dolomite. Other minerals present include a suite of REE minerals such as thorian uraninite, boltwoodite, carnotite, thorite and other uranium secondaries. Wolsendorfite and thorogummite have also been found there. "Contact Metatmorphosed Precambrian Franklin Marble in the Reading Prong Section of the New England Province" ("Geology of Pennsylvania" pg. 645). The quarry is bordered on the north and south by large masses of granitic pegmatite.

The C.K. Williams & Co. Quarry is primarily known as the type locality for the mineral eastonite. Eastonite has been described as a mixture of serpentine and phlogopite but was classified by the IMA as an approved mineral. This is partly due to the fact that eastonite contains three different types of serpentine: antigorite, chrysotile and lizardite, a previously unreported intergrowth.

In the "American Mineralogist, vol.2, November-December 1957" Arthur Montgomery authored a paper entitled 'Three Ocurrences of High Thorian Uraninite Near Easton, Pennsylvania" In it he discusses the C.K. Williams Quarry as well as two other sites, the College Hill Reservoir, near the C.K. Williams Quarry and the Royal Green Marble Co. Quarry, a mile northeast and across the Delaware River in New Jersey. Uranium mineralization was due to the existence of hydrothermal fluids and episodes of intense shearing during late-stage hydrothermal metamorphism.

At this point, I would like to explain the relationship of all this data about radioactive minerals to the above mentioned find of albite. I was part of a group visit to the site with the Friends of Mineralogy, NJ chapter and the North Jersey Mineralogical Society on July 18, 2015. Our groups often get together for collecting trips. My original intention was to seek out any evidence of radioactive minerals that the quarry is known for. We were exploring a fall of large granitic
pegmatite boulders near the south end of the quarry. I was using a Geiger Counter to examine the boulders and surrounding area.
When this particular boulder started giving off readings, we began to dismantle it. The samples were a gray/pink mineral resembling dolomite with a green coating on some areas(actinolite). Apparently there is minor amount of radioactivity present
within the albite, most likely finely disseminated microscopic grains. No evidence of radioactive mineralogy came back with the test results. A consultation with a geologist friend provided the explanation: flows of groundwater passing over and around the boulders most likely deposited the radioactive minerals(probably thorian uraninite). We also found a metamict crystal of uraninite in a nearby granitic boulder but determined that it was too dangerous to attempt extraction. The boulder was in an overhang and any disturbance may have caused it to fall.

The site is located on the west side of PA Route 611 about 1 mile north of the City of Easton. There is a small brick building across the street. It can also be found on Google Maps. The location page on www.mindat.org is a combination of the Sherrer Quarry and the C.K. Williams Quarry Complex. It can be found at www.mindat.org/loc-269881.html.


The significance of this find and the purpose for this article are twofold. The mineral albite does not appear on the Mindat list of minerals for this locality. It also does not appear in any of the reference materials. In fact, albite is
relatively uncommon anywhere in Eastern Pennsylvania.

If anyone is interested in visiting the site, if you need more information or have questions or comments, my email address is gsmoldovany@gmail.com. I live in northern New Jersey and it's about an hour ride from my home to the quarry.

Here is a list of minerals known to exist at the C.K. Williams & Co. Quarry Complex:

actinolite marcasite barite
azurite molybdenite boltwoodite
aragonite metanovacekite brucite
biotite muscovite carnotite
cuprite orthoclase celestite
calcite paragonite chalcopyrite
chlorite phologopite epidote
chrysotile pyrite fluorite
cuprite pyrolusite phosgenite
diopside quartz titanite
dolomite serpentine strontian calcite
eastonite sphalerite uraninite
galena thorite uranophane
graphite thorianite vermiculite
hematite thorogummite vesuvianite
hydromagnesite topaz zircon
ilmenite tourmaline
lepidocrocite weeksite
magnesite wolsendorfite
malachite wulfenite
manganese oxides fluorapatite

References:

1. "Paragenesis of the Serpentine-Talc Deposits Near Easton, PA" by Arthur Montgomery, Proceedings of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, volume XXIX 1955
2. "The Talc Deposits of Phillipsburg, N.J. and Easton, PA." By F.B. Peck, NJ Geological Survey, 1906
3. "Geology and Mineralogy of Uranium and Thorium in the Reading Prong of Berks, Lehigh and Northampton Counties, Pennsylvania" by Robert C. Smith,II and John H. Barnes, Mineral Resources Report No.97, 2014, Department of Conservation and Natural Resources of Pennsylvania
4. "Eastonite from Easton, Pennsylvania: A Mixture of Phlogopite and a New Form of Serpentine" by Kenneth J.T. Livi and David R. Verblen, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. The American Mineralogist, Volume 72, pages 113-125, 1987
5. "Three Occurrences of High-Thorian Uraninite Near Easton, Pennsylvania" by Arthur Montgomery, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania. The American Mineralogist, Vol.42 November-December 1957
6. "The Mineralogy of Pennsylvania 1922-1955" by Arthur Montgomery. Sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of Pennsylvania 1969. Special publication of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
7. "Mineral Collecting in Pennsylvania" by Davis M. Lapham and Alan R. Geyer, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Bureau of Internal Affairs, Bureau of Topographic and Geological Survey, General Geology Report G 33, 1965
8. "The Geology of Pennsylvania" edited by Charles H. Shultz, Department of Geology, Slippery Rock University, published by the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, Harrisburg, PA 1999

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the members of Friends of Mineralogy, NJ Chapter and the North Jersey Mineralogical Society for their help in preparing this article. In particular, I would like to thank Dave Shapiro, field trip coordinator and K.C. Dalby, Chapter President for their inspiration and contributions. I also thank Fred Schuster and Mike Dunton for contributing photographs and Mark Heintzelman for providing much-needed documents. Last but not least, I thank Jolyon Ralph and the managers and members of www.mindat.org for their endless source of information and photographs.