Post by 150FromFundy on Sept 30, 2016 19:48:18 GMT -5
I picked up a few shelf specimens at the Rockhound Gemboree in Bancroft, Ontario this summer. This is Canada’s largest show with two buildings and a parking lot of vendors. It pales in comparison to the big US shows, but still gets the heart thumping and provides a half-day of entertainment.
These two are a pseudomorph of Prehnite after Laumonite from the Malad Quarry in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The colour did not photograph well as these should be a very faint seafoam green.
In the first picture, the Prehnite has formed more in spherical balls than the straw-like structure of Laumonite. It may be a pseudomorph of one of the other zeolites from the quarry.
In the second picture, the Prehnite has formed more in the straw-like structure of Laumonite. This piece is surprisingly light as the “straws” tend to be hollow.
The first piece was $5 and the second was $8, which is a little low for specimens of this size, so I did a little research on the location. Collecting conditions for the mining families in this quarry are not the best and I don’t think they have a health plan, but they do have basalt vugs the size of walk-in closets. If you are curious, MINDAT has a number of photos from the Malad quarry. The link is below.
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?pco=2&loc=18220
For those who insist on a daily dose of learning … Prehnite was the first mineral to be named after the person that discovered it. It was first documented by Colonel Hendrik Von Prehn in 1788 who was an early Dutch colonist of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Wikipedia rocks!
Darryl.
These two are a pseudomorph of Prehnite after Laumonite from the Malad Quarry in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The colour did not photograph well as these should be a very faint seafoam green.
In the first picture, the Prehnite has formed more in spherical balls than the straw-like structure of Laumonite. It may be a pseudomorph of one of the other zeolites from the quarry.
In the second picture, the Prehnite has formed more in the straw-like structure of Laumonite. This piece is surprisingly light as the “straws” tend to be hollow.
The first piece was $5 and the second was $8, which is a little low for specimens of this size, so I did a little research on the location. Collecting conditions for the mining families in this quarry are not the best and I don’t think they have a health plan, but they do have basalt vugs the size of walk-in closets. If you are curious, MINDAT has a number of photos from the Malad quarry. The link is below.
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?pco=2&loc=18220
For those who insist on a daily dose of learning … Prehnite was the first mineral to be named after the person that discovered it. It was first documented by Colonel Hendrik Von Prehn in 1788 who was an early Dutch colonist of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Wikipedia rocks!
Darryl.
