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Chrysoberyl locality, Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USAi
Regional Level Types
Chrysoberyl localityOutcrop (Extinct)
Haddam- not defined -
Middlesex CountyCounty
ConnecticutState
USACountry

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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
41° 28' 58'' North , 72° 31' 21'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Outcrop (Extinct) - last checked 2018
KΓΆppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
PlacePopulationDistance
Higganum1,698 (2017)3.3km
East Haddam9,042 (2017)6.1km
Moodus1,413 (2017)6.4km
East Hampton2,691 (2017)10.5km
Chester Center1,558 (2017)10.8km
Nearest Clubs:
Local clubs are the best way to get access to collecting localities
ClubLocationDistance
Lapidary and Mineral Society of Central ConnecticutMeriden, Connecticut24km
New Haven Mineral ClubNew Haven, Connecticut39km
Bristol Gem & Mineral ClubBristol, Connecticut41km
Mindat Locality ID:
213971
Long-form identifier:
mindat:1:2:213971:8
GUID (UUID V4):
225e8334-52e4-426e-8d04-cbfe604e9669


Chrysoberyl was discovered at Haddam in 1810 by Archibald Bruce. Though the type locality is listed as "Brazil", the type Brazilian specimens were alluvial. As pointed out in Webster (1820), the Haddam locality is the first place where chrysoberyl was found in-situ. The famous locality was a vein cropping out on the north-side courtyard and extending into the cellar of the old Cephus Brainerd House on Walkley Hill Road (formerly part of the old Middlesex County Turnpike). Miss Eveline Brainerd later named the farm "Chrysoberyl Knoll" (Williams 1899).

Collectors and mineralogists frequently blasted the rock for specimens, descriptions of this activity are given in Webster (1820) and Hall (1840). As a comment in Webster (1820), Benjamin Silliman wrote, "Mineralogists have found it necessary, and just, to insure the proprietor of the house, against their gunpowder blasts and to pay him liberally for the molestation of his peace."

Hall (1840) noted that his charge would be set off within 3 to 4 feet from the north side of the house:

The mode of operating is this: the orifice is sunk to the depth of twelve or fourteen inches; about a pound and a half of powder is poured in and confined in the ordinary manner; planks are placed before the lower windows; the upper ones are taken out; poles are brought and laid over the digging, to diminish the force of the rising fragments; all is ready; the train is laid; the family seem fearless; but I acknowledge myself a coward, and have no liking for the smell of gunpowder; I retire into the cornfield; away gives the charge; the solid granite is shattered; the explosion was a heavy one; the fragments flew in all directions; a mass, weighing, perhaps, a quarter of a ton, was thrown completely over the house, and lodged a rod or two beyond it, and yet no injury was sustained by the edifice, except the fracturing of a few panes of glass.


Davis (1901) writes:

About 1844 parties came here from New Haven in search of this rare mineral. It existed in very fine quality on the premises of Cephas Brainerd, very near his dwelling house. An eccentric old gentleman said to Professor Silliman who when blasting shook the house, 'Do you expect to take all that you have moved?' 'Yes!' he answered. 'You will have to take the old house.' 'Well.' said the professor, 'I won't take you.' Unfortunately for the scientific world this famous deposit is closed to the public, now being covered by the lawn of the present owner.


When exactly the blasting ended is not certain, but Shepard (1870) refers to "a recent blasting".

There is still no exposure of the vein or associated gneiss at the spot now. According to Williams (circa 1945 and 1899), the vein was also exposed on the adjoining hill across the road to the SW, behind a small feldspar quarry, where he found similar minerals. This area is all developed into residential properties.

The chrysoberyl occurred in abundant platy crystals up to about three inches across, typically in cyclic twins. They are greenish-yellow and not of gem quality, though by no means opaque. Webster (1820) reports "perfect garnets, up to four, five, six inches in diameter". They are spessartine according to analysis by Seybert (1823).

Small columbite-(Fe) crystals from here were also studied in the 19th century. This was the first locality where columbite was found in-situ in the USA (Torrey, 1822a & 1824) after Hatchett completed the initial description in 1802 on the old specimen from uncertain Connecticut affinity found by Governor Winthrop in the 17th century (http://www.mindat.org/loc-234868.html). Shepard (1870) published finding tiny microlites in the columbite-(Fe).

Though described generically as a "pegmatite", the locality is very unusual for the Middletown pegmatite district because of its intimate mixture of typical metamorphic minerals (albite var. oligoclase, cordierite, talc) with typical pegmatitic species (chrysoberyl, spessartine, beryl, columbite-(Fe), bismuthinite). Quartz, gahnite, schorl and zircon could be found in either type of rock; but critically, K-feldspar is absent, and most pegmatitic garnets in the district are almandine. The descriptions of its former outcrop indicate it was conformable to the regional foliation. Thus, its mineralogy and geology are dissimilar to the myriads of cross-cutting albite-microcline-quartz pegmatite dikes that populate Connecticut. Of these, only the Hollister quarry in South Glastonbury has any significant gahnite. Gahnite has also been found at the Simpson quarry in South Glastonbury associated with beryl.

The rock is similar to, and along strike with, the Tim's Hill (http://www.mindat.org/loc-23749.html) and Beaver Meadow Road-State Route 9 Interchange (http://www.mindat.org/loc-6865.html), which also have oligoclase, cordierite, and schorl but lack the chrysoberyl, beryl, spessartine, talc, and columbite. The Tim's Hill and Beaver Meadow Road-State Route 9 Interchange veins, which still crop out, are also conformable with the regional foliation, suggesting they all result from the metamorphism of a distinct layer in the gneiss' protolith.

Though the strike of the layer does extend across the Connecticut river, a general reference to chrysoberyl east of the river by Torrey (1822) has never been substantiated by any exact locality or reference and would certainly have become well-known if it existed. The problem may have resulted from the vein at the Brainerd house being confused with the Brainerd Quarries in Haddam Neck across the river. Specimens for sale also moved freely across the river on ferries and were potentially available from many members of the locally prominent Brainerd family and local dealers such as Nathaniel Cook.

In any case, the Haddam chrysoberyls are NOT from the Gillette Quarry across the Connecticut River in Haddam Neck as is sometimes reported. The opening of that quarry in the 1890s post-dates this locality by over 80 years, early references do not mention it and modern collecting has never found it there. Specimens mislabeled as originating there (such as the first illustration in the Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Rocks and Minerals) match all the mineralogical and petrological characteristics of the Walkley Hill Road locality.

There is one other Connecticut chrysoberyl locality, though very obscure and meager. Januzzi (1994) reports finding chrysoberyl during construction of the U.S. Route 7 Expressway near the Iron Works District in Brookfield (http://www.mindat.org/loc-213273.html). This is confirmed via two specimens from his former collection, the best (2mm crystal) can be seen here: https://www.mindat.org/photo-896683.html Chrysoberyl confirmed by analysis has also been recently found in Oxford, Connecticut.

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Mineral List


13 valid minerals.

Detailed Mineral List:

β“˜ Albite
Formula: Na(AlSi3O8)
Habit: massive
Colour: white
β“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase
Formula: (Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
Habit: anhedral, cleavable, massive
Colour: white, blue opalescence
β“˜ Beryl
Formula: Be3Al2(Si6O18)
Habit: elongated prisms
Colour: green, greenish-yellow to wax-yellow
Description: Shepard (1837 writes: "crystals sometimes five or six inches in diameter, occasionally occur. They have a greenish yellow color, sometimes passing into wax-yellow; and are frequently penetrated by crystals of chrysoberyl."
β“˜ Bismuthinite
Formula: Bi2S3
Habit: elongated, slender
Colour: metallic
Description: A few slender crystals of this species have been detected (Shepard 1837)
β“˜ Bismutite
Formula: (BiO)2CO3
Habit: earthy
Colour: yellow
Description: With [bismuthinite], occurs a yellow pulverulent substance resembling the bismuth-ochre (Shepard 1837).
References:
βœͺ Chrysoberyl
Formula: BeAl2O4
Habit: Typically flat, striated, cyclic twins, sometimes fully 6-sided.
Colour: yellow-green, pale green
Description: First locality where it was found in-situ. Intensely studied in the 19th century - crystal drawings are in Dana's System of Mineralogy and Goldschmidt's Atlas der Krystallformen. Shepard (1837) writes: "occurs in large distinct crystals, simple and compound (see fig. 136 of my Mineralogy) as well as massive". Crystals reached up to about 7.5 cm across, typically translucent but not gemmy.
β“˜ Columbite-(Fe)
Formula: Fe2+Nb2O6
Habit: massive, slender prisms
Colour: black
Description: First confirmed in-situ locality after the mineral was first described in 1802 from an old, loose crystal. Massive material was "from one-fourth to half an inch in diameter, of a grayish black colour, with the surface always more or less irised", "The crystals are very minute, being seldom greater in diameter than a common pin, and often much less; yet many are extremely perfect.", "They are often grouped, or or intersecting, and are very brittle. The form of the crystal is that of a compressed rectangular prism, usually truncated on the lateral edges, or a four-sided pyramid, two sides of which are, in most instances, unduly extended.", "Specific gravity 5.90" Torrey (1824). The gravity of four crystals tested by Shepard (1870) were 6.02, 6.03, 6.10, 6.19, making them columbite. Dana (1875) gives analyses showing about three times as much iron as manganese.
β“˜ Cordierite
Formula: (Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Habit: massive to subhedral short prisms
Colour: blue to green
Description: Shepard (1837) referring to it as "iolite" writes: "It occurs in large massive individuals, having one very eminent cleavage. Its colors are various shades of blue and green, the former predominating; it is transparent in spots, and possessed of dichroism. It is obtained at this place with some difficulty, and does not promise to be abundant." Much of it is altered to what Shepard (1841) refers to as "pinite" but more likely "fahlunite" similar to that found at Tim's Hill.
β“˜ 'Fahlunite'
Formula: (Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Habit: foliated masses, pseudomorphs after cordierite
Colour: dull bluish green color
Description: Referred to by Shepard (1841) as "pinite" and similar to the material he gives the same name to at Tim's Hill, now referred to as "fahlunite". Here he says "It presents itself most commonly, in small foliated masses of a dull bluish green color, disseminated through, the same albitic granite in which the chrysoberyl, garnet, columbite, zircon, automalite and bismuthic ores occur. A few specimens have been observed, in which the pinite assumed a regular crystalline form; the figure of the crystal being either an hexagonal prism, or this form altered by the bevelment of its lateral edges."
β“˜ Gahnite
Formula: ZnAl2O4
Habit: massive grains, subhedral octahedrons
Colour: dark bluish green
Description: Referred to by Shepard (1837) as "automolite". Crystals up to 1 inch (Silliman, 1829). Apparently more common than the columbite-(Fe).
β“˜ 'Microlite Group'
Formula: A2-mTa2X6-wZ-n
Habit: octahedral
Colour: brown
Description: Micro crystals in and on columbite-(Fe).
β“˜ Quartz
Formula: SiO2
Habit: massive
Colour: smoky gray
β“˜ Quartz var. Smoky Quartz
Formula: SiO2
Habit: massive
Colour: smoky gray
β“˜ Schorl
Formula: NaFe2+3Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
Habit: subhedral short prisms
Colour: black
Description: Accessory mineral, crystals not that large or well formed compared to other localities.
βœͺ Spessartine
Formula: Mn2+3Al2(SiO4)3
Habit: Dodecahedral
Colour: blood red
Description: Crystals are translucent and partly gemmy, some perfectly formed, reached up to 15 cm across. Seybert's (1823) analysis showed twice as much Mn oxide as Fe oxide, unusual as most garnets from the Middletown pegmatite district are almandine.
β“˜ Talc
Formula: Mg3Si4O10(OH)2
Habit: massive, fibrous
Colour: white to pale yellow
β“˜ Zircon
Formula: Zr(SiO4)
Habit: square prisms with pyramidal terminations
Colour: grayish brown, dark brown
Description: referred to by Shepard as "calyptolite" in small or minute crystals

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts
β“˜Bismuthinite2.DB.05Bi2S3
Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides
β“˜'Microlite Group'4.00.A2-mTa2X6-wZ-n
β“˜Chrysoberyl4.BA.05BeAl2O4
β“˜Gahnite4.BB.05ZnAl2O4
β“˜Quartz
var. Smoky Quartz
4.DA.05SiO2
β“˜4.DA.05SiO2
β“˜Columbite-(Fe)4.DB.35Fe2+Nb2O6
Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates
β“˜Bismutite5.BE.25(BiO)2CO3
Group 9 - Silicates
β“˜Spessartine9.AD.25Mn2+3Al2(SiO4)3
β“˜Zircon9.AD.30Zr(SiO4)
β“˜Beryl9.CJ.05Be3Al2(Si6O18)
β“˜Cordierite9.CJ.10(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
β“˜Schorl9.CK.05NaFe2+3Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
β“˜Talc9.EC.05Mg3Si4O10(OH)2
β“˜Albite
var. Oligoclase
9.FA.35(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
β“˜9.FA.35Na(AlSi3O8)
Unclassified
β“˜'Fahlunite'-(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 Β· 2H2O

List of minerals for each chemical element

HHydrogen
Hβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Hβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
Hβ“˜ TalcMg3Si4O10(OH)2
BeBeryllium
Beβ“˜ BerylBe3Al2(Si6O18)
Beβ“˜ ChrysoberylBeAl2O4
BBoron
Bβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
CCarbon
Cβ“˜ Bismutite(BiO)2CO3
OOxygen
Oβ“˜ AlbiteNa(AlSi3O8)
Oβ“˜ Bismutite(BiO)2CO3
Oβ“˜ BerylBe3Al2(Si6O18)
Oβ“˜ ChrysoberylBeAl2O4
Oβ“˜ Cordierite(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Oβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Oβ“˜ Columbite-(Fe)Fe2+Nb2O6
Oβ“˜ GahniteZnAl2O4
Oβ“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
Oβ“˜ QuartzSiO2
Oβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
Oβ“˜ Quartz var. Smoky QuartzSiO2
Oβ“˜ SpessartineMn32+Al2(SiO4)3
Oβ“˜ TalcMg3Si4O10(OH)2
Oβ“˜ ZirconZr(SiO4)
NaSodium
Naβ“˜ AlbiteNa(AlSi3O8)
Naβ“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
Naβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
MgMagnesium
Mgβ“˜ Cordierite(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Mgβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Mgβ“˜ TalcMg3Si4O10(OH)2
AlAluminium
Alβ“˜ AlbiteNa(AlSi3O8)
Alβ“˜ BerylBe3Al2(Si6O18)
Alβ“˜ ChrysoberylBeAl2O4
Alβ“˜ Cordierite(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Alβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Alβ“˜ GahniteZnAl2O4
Alβ“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
Alβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
Alβ“˜ SpessartineMn32+Al2(SiO4)3
SiSilicon
Siβ“˜ AlbiteNa(AlSi3O8)
Siβ“˜ BerylBe3Al2(Si6O18)
Siβ“˜ Cordierite(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Siβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Siβ“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
Siβ“˜ QuartzSiO2
Siβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
Siβ“˜ Quartz var. Smoky QuartzSiO2
Siβ“˜ SpessartineMn32+Al2(SiO4)3
Siβ“˜ TalcMg3Si4O10(OH)2
Siβ“˜ ZirconZr(SiO4)
SSulfur
Sβ“˜ BismuthiniteBi2S3
CaCalcium
Caβ“˜ Albite var. Oligoclase(Na,Ca)[Al(Si,Al)Si2O8]
MnManganese
Mnβ“˜ SpessartineMn32+Al2(SiO4)3
FeIron
Feβ“˜ Cordierite(Mg,Fe)2Al3(AlSi5O18)
Feβ“˜ Fahlunite(Mg,Fe)Al2Si3O10 · 2H2O
Feβ“˜ Columbite-(Fe)Fe2+Nb2O6
Feβ“˜ SchorlNaFe32+Al6(Si6O18)(BO3)3(OH)3(OH)
ZnZinc
Znβ“˜ GahniteZnAl2O4
ZrZirconium
Zrβ“˜ ZirconZr(SiO4)
NbNiobium
Nbβ“˜ Columbite-(Fe)Fe2+Nb2O6
TaTantalum
Taβ“˜ Microlite GroupA2-mTa2X6-wZ-n
BiBismuth
Biβ“˜ BismuthiniteBi2S3
Biβ“˜ Bismutite(BiO)2CO3

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality


This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

 
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