Tucson 2002
Part II - Alpine Minerals
Alpine minerals haven't been "the rage" in Tucson for a few years now, since these hot hydrothermal honeys were the feature of the show in 1998. Nonetheless, if you're dedicated (would my wife say, "obsessed?"), if you get to know a few people, and if you've got a week or so to spend wandering and bartering in west Tucson hotels, there are some fabulous mineral specimens to be found.
Here are the first and some of the best Alpine minerals I was lucky enough to get my hands on this year in the Emerald City. I hope you like them as much as I do!
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Fluorite on Quartz This may be the best specimen I've ever offered. From the fabulous 1998 find by Jean-Frank Charlet and Rene Ghilini, this is a fluorite that would do any museum proud. The "flat" part of the specimen consists of dozens of small red fluorite octahedrons intergrown in a crust over the matrix. In the middle of the specimen, invisible to the camera, are several clear and smoky quartz crystals sticking almost straight up. Nobody will ever know what the terminations of these quartzes look like, but I imagine they're perfect. Rolling over from the back, and dripping over the front like a tidal wave, the fluorite crust becomes much more vivid in form. Hanging along the leading edge of the "wave" are several perfect, translucent, deep red octahedrons. My, oh my.
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Fluorite on Quartz and Adularia A super-unique Alpine fluorite. The main crystal is a bicolored cuboctahedron with dodecahedreal modifications that fascinates me to no end! The core is deep pink, and there seems to be a zone of light purple, then the outside looks, from some angles, to be totally water-clear. There is a smaller, similarly formed fluorite crystal next to the main one. These sit on some tiny smoky quartz crystals atop a feldspar matrix. Found in 1999, also by Jean-Frank Charlet and Rene Ghilini.
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Fluorite Hmmm. What can I say about this fluorite... it's a big, wonderfully sharp, super deep red octahedron on a bit of matrix that could serve well as the centerpiece of many types of collections. Found in 1985 by Ravanel Ghilini, this is simply one of the best Alpine red fluorites around. I'll have to let the photos speak for themselves from there...
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Fluorite A very rare, green fluorite from the famous (but small) power station tunnel find in 1996. Another sharp, unusual octahedron, this one has a couple of contacts, and the corners are all slightly dinged, but the rarity of the color and the notoriety of the find make up for the imperfections. Display this one next to the red octahedron above, and you'd have a seriously competitive pair of specimens!
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Harmotome on Apophyllite A nifty, unusual specimen of a mineral you don't see every day. Most of the specimen is covered with tiny, transparent green-yellow apophyllites. On the "front" are a couple dozen pearly translucent white harmotome crystals, up to about 1 cm. With Stuart collection lucite display label, and card labels from Stuart and the L.A. County Natural History Museum.
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Titanite (Sphene) A big, fat, lovely green sphene twin. The crystal is translucent and very nice in color - not a bit of yellow. There are some very interesting crystal faces along the twinning line. This sphene is terminated on all sides, and included by chlorite in a few areas. One of the nicest Pakistani sphenes I've had, and the only "floater."
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Titanite (Sphene) About a half dozen nice, flat sphene crystals with chlorite in a very aesthetic arrangement on top of a granite and adularia matrix. This is a killer large miniature sphene specimen from a classic Alpine titanite locality.
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Titanite (Sphene) Wow. Konstantin Buslovich had just a couple of these really cool "tabby" sphenes. The 1.5 cm crystal is a deep, emerald green and sits up very nicely on top of the rich purple matrix. There is definitely a ding on the top corner of the sphene, that keeps this from being a very expensive specimen. The thing is so darned aesthetic, though, that I can easily overlook the ding. There are a few other sphenes along the "back" of the specimen.
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Epidote/Clinozoisite Is it epidote, or clinozoisite? Probably clinozoisite, but this beautiful specimen has not been analyzed. Super lustrous, and fairly gemmy, this specimen is several clusters of parallel brownish-green crystals arranged in a classic herringbone pattern, with the orientation angle of the crystal clusters alternating several times across the specimen. A really striking epidote. I mean clinozoisite.
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Epidote A big, thick, almost black epidote crystal with mirror-bright faces and a very interesting form. Epidote crystals of this size are unusual, and this one is very nice. The lustre of this specimen is incredible, and there is a fascinating series of very shallow cracks in the surfaces of the prism faces that add interest. This is a really unusual, big epidote from Pakistan (or anywhere else, for that matter).
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Titanite Unusual layered, light yellow-green, striated crystals of titanite on an ineresting matrix that includes epidote, byssolite, and some other stuff. The titanites have a couple of tiny rough spots on the edges, but the color is really pleasant, the lustre is very high, and the specimen is very aesthetically arranged.
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Titanite (Sphene) Another beautiful, very green sphene. This heavy little crystal is a cluster of sharp, very lustrous sphenes on a bit of chlorite and feldspar matrix. The color is more green, and less yellow than the photos indicate. The specimen is translucent, but not transparent, and there are a few scattered little dings on a few edges, but they are insignificant when measured against the overall quality of the crystal. A really sweet sphene.
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Titanite An awesome, almost axinite-brown cluster of titanites. The main crystal looks like a really funky twin, but it's actually 2 intergrown crystals with some terribly interesting crystal structure along the sides that face each other. The specimen has an adamantine lustre, that is, looking at a crystal face straight on silvery and mirror bright. Tilting the crystal a bit reveals the rich brown color, and translucency. One of the nicest titanites of this color that I've seen.
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Apatite on Feldspar A neat little crystal of purplish-brown, heavily included apatite. The prism faces of the crystal are mostly smooth and lustrous, and it's fun to look inside and try to discern what's in there. Nothing spectacular, but I find this little guy awfully interesting and appealing.
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Alpine Minerals | Minerals | Tucson 2002 - II