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Post by Ryan on Jun 7, 2011 0:05:22 GMT -5
When I go to a mine that is far away from where I live, I always make sure to take a bucket load of stones home to review at a later date. I cant imagine I am the only person that does this. Such was the case at the Crabtree mine last visit and I recently had a look through some material in my Crabtree reserve. I came up with nothing of interest so I started to review some Crabtree shelf specimins with the 10x loupe looking for anomalies and micros. After looking over an emerald specimen and a few beryl in matrix pieces, I started scanning a schorl piece I have. Truth be told, I was actually looking for emeralds, beryls or micro "hot" crystals (monazite, samarskite) I had missed on first glance with the other pieces so I didnt expect to see anything cool on this particular piece. Its quite simple, just a "rod" of schorl streaking across some white pegmatite, but on the back, what do we have here? They are small, reeeeallly small as my enormous looking pointer finger shows,.. But green! And pretty gemmy too!  If you cant see them that well in that picture, here are some zoom shots. I have a 12 mega pixel camera so I can zoom in pretty tight with photoshop. The first is just a zoom on the previous picture at full resolution and the second is the same area from a different angle.  Im guessing this is just a green phase of small schorl needles? But why? The vast majority of the schorl needles I see on these pieces are not too terribly translucent let alone completely transparent and gemmy. And those that are of the gemmier variety are more of a root beer color similar to those root beer barrel candies you get at cracker barrel. These are straight up green albeit an olive kinda drab green, but green nonetheless. Strange...no?  |
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Post by quailriver on Jun 7, 2011 0:45:28 GMT -5
Hello Ryan, Can't determine the crystal structure very well from the photographs but these look a lot like Epidote Crystals to me. Epidote Crystals are found in the Little Switzerland area of NC but I don't recall having seen them at the Crabtree before. It has been thirty+ years ago since I was last there so maybe someone who has visited it more recently can verify?
Best Regards,
Larry
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Post by rockshine on Jun 7, 2011 5:39:36 GMT -5
Hey Ryan, last year, I came up with a few of those greenish transparent, although without magnification they had a grey/green hue, but mine are the normal small schorl size.
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Post by writerman2255 on Jun 7, 2011 8:17:40 GMT -5
I am going to post this large gemmy "schorl" which is what I imainge it is, that I just so happened to re-look at last night. There is tourmaline in the Tree area, that is green, and some of the tourmaline from the Tree, if you thin slice it, turns very green, just like your crystals. This piece of gemmy tourmaline I have is black, and does not have the striations that normally are associated with tourmaline, so I really don't know what it would be classified as. But you can look right into the stone at least an eighth of an inch or so, and it's very clear. It's about an inch or so long and a quarter inch wide.  |
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Post by Ryan on Jun 7, 2011 11:59:42 GMT -5
Tom, that crystal looks alot like some of the schorl i have on display for my Crabtree shelf. Some of the schorl does indeed come in very smooth, well formed crystals. These greenies, on the other hand, threw me for a loop though because of the clarity and color. I have other needles of schorl that are somewhat translucent and they are all of the root beer / yellowish brown color. While still somewhat of a drab olive green color, the ones i found the other day (pictured above) are still much different in appearance from the "run of the mill" schorl needles from the ole' 'tree, hence the post.
Im not sure about the epidote comment. I have no experience with epidote whatsoever, so any statement or comment I make concerning that guess would be an ignorant one. I suppose it could be epidote though I certainly wouldn't know.
A few posts back in one of these crabtree threads, Rick mentioned that schorl can occasionally be green. Also, there was a reference somewhere on DRH about Ray Mine green tourmaline. Same pegmatite system, different area. I believe that particular Ray Mine post said that the crystals in question from there were verified as actual elbaite green tourm and not schorl. This was surprising and exciting to me. I love digging for rarities and gems and the opportunity to have a Ray mine elbaite sounds like a lovely prosepect. I cannot reliably postulate that I think I have "Crabtree elbaite" though I suppose anything is possible at Crabtree. Mindat does not have elbaite listed for the tree but they also do not have several other minerals listed that I HAVE found at the Crabtree.
So far, I am leaning towards a strange phase of green schorl based on Ricks previous input, schorl's prevalence at the tree, and Tom's testimony that some of his thin sliced Crabtree schorl material is bright green in cross-section. There arent many people on earth more qualified to tell you "whats at the Crabtree mine" than Tom, Rick, and a handfull of other MAGMA members. I hope some more of you look at my photos above and throw in your two-bits! I very much enjoy reading multiple hypotheses
(yep, thats the proper plural of Hypothesis) from the various experts here at DRH! It is fairly typical that eventually, someone knows exactly what theyre looking at and helps me ID these curiosities. So in advance, THANKS!
P.S. Still stuck on the chysoberyl / yellow beryl dillemma from my previous Crabtree curiousity post. I have since found another chunk of similar material. Thank God for my "take home" buckets. I love going through them when I dont have an excuse to travel 8 hours down to the real thing. I only wish I had a dump truck! ;D ...though Rick might frown upon me hauling a few tons of the Crabtree home with me... :-)
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Post by IronTom on Jun 7, 2011 19:24:06 GMT -5
I have a piece with a crystal just like those on it.
Although mine was buried layers of the mica/schist. I'll try to get some pictures of it, maybe they'll help with an I.D. as the crystal structure is quite well formed. Just so tiny though!
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Post by writerman2255 on Jun 8, 2011 14:09:14 GMT -5
I just happened to accidentally walk into a rock shop today, lord knows what I was doing there, the place was filled with rocks, after all, sheesh! Be that as it may, they had this specimen labeled "Dravite Tourmaline" and lo and behold it was the exact clear/browish/red as the specimen I posted in this thread. I think The Tree has Dravite Tourmaline whatever that is. And in particular, Dravite Tourmaline has those clipped small corners, as does the specimen I posted. There you have it. T.
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Post by bammer on Jun 8, 2011 14:40:11 GMT -5
Remember this photo? Some small cut Crabtree Emeralds and a dark green tourmaline.  The first time I dug at the tree I found some stuff and went on a faceting craze. I faceted two Emeralds and five Tourmalines. Concerning the Black looking Tourmaline. About half of the time they are not Black. They are usually Brown or Green. Sometimes it takes some bright light to see the color. Sometimes they are bi colored. Brown to Green on the same crystal. It may be hard to find an intact (not shattered) crystal. Thin them down and cut some facets to gather and reflect the light and 'bam' you got something nice... maybe not as nice as an Emerald but nice anyway. |
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Post by Ryan on Jun 13, 2011 0:39:24 GMT -5
Mike are you saying the tourm in that picture is from the tree???
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Post by writerman2255 on Jun 13, 2011 6:29:40 GMT -5
If your question, Ryan, is directed to me, (you said 'Mike') then, yes, the Dravite Tourmaline is from the Tree. Tom.
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Post by Ryan on Jun 14, 2011 1:21:56 GMT -5
I was talking about Bammers faceted tourm, but I enjoy your crabtree pics just as much Tom!
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Post by writerman2255 on Jun 14, 2011 12:07:00 GMT -5
Hey, who doesn't love rocks? That would be just weird. Right? T.
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