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4MC49
Rutile Paramorph After Brookite
Magnet Cove, Arkansas
Thumbnail, 2.0 x 1.8 x 1.3 cm
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A sharp, cyclic- twinned brookite crystal replaced by lustrous rutile! Old classic material! Much better in person. Mke Howard had an article in Rocks and Minerals a few years back that talked about these crystals, in considerable detail. Basically, any "brookite" that is a pseudo-hexagonal bipyramid (not twinned) and that is bigger than a quarter-inch is virtually always replaced by rutile (this can be recognized by striations, that sometimes create a "moire effect," on the surface..You can also often spot a hint of the red internal reflections that characterize rutile, and the color is a little different from the black lustrous brookite crystals.) I could be wrong and this one could be an exception - a very large brookite dipyramid. The striations I do see tell me it is a rutile.