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Post by Ryan on Sept 16, 2010 22:20:19 GMT -5
Prompted by a post by Lee, I decided to look over a few rocks, and I found this gemmy greenish thing encrusted in the side of a kyanite specimin from Mas Celo. The entire rock is kyanite and quartz so this thing stood out pretty bad. I had always dismissed it as a spec of schorl or country rock until I looked at it under a light and a loupe. here it is, its all of a millimeter or two. I had to take this photo while holding a light on the rock and while holding the camera up to my loupe. Im amazed the picture turned out at all. It looks like a greenish garnet but Im thinking possibly a small olivine var. peridot?? Then again, Im pretty new to the hobby so... help?  |
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Post by ncbbqnut on Sept 17, 2010 15:33:20 GMT -5
Ryan,
That's a very nice micro crystal you found. I checked the mineral list for the Celo Mine (= Mas-Celo Mine) and there are two possible species that your specimen might be. The first is Monazite-Ce which is found in a variety of colors, including green, is weakly radioactivite, and non-fluorescent. Mindat.org has a few photos of green Monazite-Ce in their galleries, and the crystal structure looks very close to your specimen.
The other species is Fluorapatite, found in a variety of colors, and fluoreseces yellow to orange under SW UV. Without doing analytical tests it is hard to positively ID the crystal. If you have access to a Geiger counter and UV lamps you may be able to eliminate one or both.
Good luck in your identification quest. Keep us posted on what you learn.
Peace,
Dennis
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Post by arappaho on Sept 21, 2010 22:38:18 GMT -5
Hey Ryan, any luck figuring it out?
I've been looking into that Monazite stuff lately and it ain't easy to
ID because there are so many types, forms and colors.
Got to keep on reading till some sort of a light turns on,(UV maybe),
but still in the dark for now.
Great pic BTW.
As always, thanks for the help, Dennis.
Joe
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Post by Ryan on Sept 27, 2010 23:08:08 GMT -5
Id love to tell you Joe, but I dont have a SW UV. I have access to a geiger counter, but no SW. Anybody know of a good (but cheap) SWUV light? I keep seeing this RayTech thing for around $99 online... Hmm, Theres gotta be a thread on DRH about that...  Ill be back... |
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Post by Ryan on Sept 27, 2010 23:45:50 GMT -5
Nope. I spend $200 to "look at rocks" and the woman will certainly have a hissy fit !!!
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