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Mineral Specimens with Fluorite
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6.3 x 5.6 x 3.2 cm. Aesthetically perched high on bright, black sphalerite crystals to 1.7 cm across is a 3.5 cm complex crystal of gemmy, pastel green fluorite. The fluorite crystals are cubes with modifying octahedral faces.
3.0 x 2.6 x 2.3 cm. Naica has produced many beautiful fluorite specimens, but in my view none more spectacular than the limpid, blue and purple spinel twins, like this one. This small pocket was found in 1984 (if I recall) and set a standard to which others have been compared since and never meet. This thing is glassy and much more intensely purple, in person. The faces are wet-looking, and look carved. The twinning is so sharp and complex, they look like purple calcites of some kind rather than fluorite.
This Photo was Mindat.org Photo of the Day - 2nd May 2009
6.6 x 4.8 x 4.1 cm. This interlocked cluster of gemmy fluorite crystals has a very deeply colored green chromophore. The crystals show stepped growth and all appear to be cubes modified by octahedral faces. They are all gemmy. The largest crystal is 2.8 cm across. And as a bonus, the specimen also has inclusions of bright pyrite as well as pyrite crystals to 1.0 cm across scattered on the fluorite.
6.4 x 5.8 x 5.8 cm. The color in the center of this cluster of gemmy fluorite crystals is pastel green while around the periphery it is the very lightest pastel lavender. All the fluorite crystals, which reach 2.6 cm across, appear to be cubes with modifying octahedral faces. Stepped growth is also clearly evident. Splendent, black sphalerite forms the matrix for this piece.
7.8 x 6.0 x 4.6 cm. Splendent, black sphalerite crystals, to 2.25 cm across, form a matrix on which is impaled a cluster of gemmy, pastel green and pastel lavender, fluorite crystals, to 2.5 cm across. The fluorite crystals exhibit stepped growth of cubes modified by octahedral faces. The 3-tiered specimen has very nice aesthetics, with the sparkle of the overlaying Quartz druse adding a lot to the overall impact.
9.3 x 8.2 x 5.7 cm. This matrix specimen features several, gemmy, large bi-colored fluorite crystals. The core color is pastel green while the terminal faces are a pastel lavender. The largest crystal measures 5.0 cm across. Offsetting the fluorites, at the bottom of the specimen, are two splendent, black sphalerite crystals to 1.5 cm across.
10.1 x 8.0 x 7.5 cm. This specimen is bizarre, having the isolated stacked chain of successively larger crystals perched upon matrix which seems apart. Massive, mirror bright, gray galena is the matrix for the two generations of fluorite. The first generation is gemmy, pastel green that is supplanted by gemmy, nearly colorless, stepped growth of cubes modified by octahedral faces. The largest of the latter generation measures 2.3 cm across.
8.0 x 5.5 x 5.0 cm. Stunning cluster of two gemmy, extremely complexly stepped and modified cuboctahedra, separated by a lustrous sphalerite cluster which each partially overgrows as they almost meet in the middle. The contrasts is striking and the 3-dimensionality more impressive in person.
14.4 x 9.4 x 6.8 cm. A complex 9 cm crystal, stretching from the top to the bottom, makes this piece leap out at you since it is one of the largest crystals I have seen from Naica. The complex stair-step crystallography here is amazing to look at, and the green fluorite so translucent that you can really look deep into it. The stark contrast of the lustrous, jet black sphalerite between the two fluorite clusters is superb and provides relief. The back side is coated with a sparkly quartz druse that slightly overlaps to the top of the piece, wrapping around.
31.0 x 19.0 x 7.3 cm. This is a massive fluorite plate from Naica. It is solid fluorite, completely made up of bright and transparent crystals to 3.5 cm. In person, it’s actually more 3-dimensional than flat, aided in the appearance by the superb beveled crystals popping out at you like bug eyes. In person, this has an overall pleasing green color although some of the larger crystals are more pale than the core. It is an impressive specimen for the locality, but the complex crystal forms present make it really impressive by worldwide standards too, for sheer number of faces on one plate here.
17.8 x 14.5 x 10.5 cm. Over a dozen transparent, gemmy, undamaged cuboctohedral crystals to 3 cm in size perch like mountain climbers upon this mound of crystallized galena. The contrast is striking. The association is classic for Naica, for old material. For this new find, it seems rather unusual as most of the associations are with sphalerite. Also, the rivulets of sparkling crystallized quartz running down the seams of the piece provide a nice accent and some sparkle and are themselves unusual in the occurrence.
8.2 x 5.0 x 4.0 cm. A cluster of gemmy, pastel green fluorite crystals to 4.0 cm across sit on a few splendent black crystals of sphalerite, to 2.5 cm across. The fluorite crystals are cubes that are modified by octahedral faces, and all are transparently clear right to the cores within (some speckled by included pyrite).
5.0 x 4.1 x 2.9 cm. A 3-cm "jewel" of a crystal perched on sphalerite matrix. This crystal is gemmy, translucent to transparent with a few internal veils only.
6.0 x 4.5 x 4.4 cm. A stunning miniature with a 3.5-cm complex crystal cluster atop. This looks like a mountain rising out of a nest of surrounding trees, the single large and sharp, gemmy, cuboctahedron in the middle just rising above the surrounding minutely crystallized fluorite. All perched on a nice mound of crystallized sphalerite and complete all around.
10.0 x 9.3 x 8.7 cm. This unusual Naica piece is more starkly octahedral than others you normally see from the locale. It is an older specimen. It dates from, probably, the early 1980s. The piece has two large octahedra in the middle, coated in front by a blanket of dogtooth calcites. The contrast is very nice. The octahedra have slight cubic modifications, you can see, at their very tips. But they are still more octahedron than cube by far and as such are the exception at Naica.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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share specimen![Fluorite, Sphalerite from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224753a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224753a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Pyrite from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224755a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224755a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Sphalerite from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224756a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224756a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Sphalerite, Quartz from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224757a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224757a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Sphalerite from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224758a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224758a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Galena from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224759a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224759a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Sphalerite from Naica, Mun. de Saucillo, Chihuahua, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-224766a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-224766a.jpg)
