4.2" Green Fluorite and Yellow Calcite Association - Fluorescent!

This is a nice association of green cubic fluorite crystals and yellow calcite crystals. The formation resembles fluorite specimens from the Zhejiang Province of China, however the specific locality within China from which the specimen was collected, is unknown.

Under long wave UV, this specimen fluoresces two separate colors. The calcite has an orange fluorescence, while the fluorite displays a faint purple fluorescence.

Fluorite is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluorine, CaF2. The word fluorite is from the Latin fluo-, which means "to flow". In 1852 fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon known as fluorescence, or the property of fluorite to glow a different color depending upon the bandwidth of the ultraviolet light it is exposed to. Fluorite occurs commonly in cubic, octahedral, and dodecahedral crystals in many different colors. These colors range from colorless and completely transparent to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, or black. Purples and greens tend to be the most common colors seen, and colorless, pink, and black are the rarest.

Calcite, CaCO3, is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Calcite crystals are trigonal-rhombohedral, though actual calcite rhombohedra are rare as natural crystals. However, they show a remarkable variety of habits including acute to obtuse rhombohedra, tabular forms, and prisms. Calcite exhibits several twinning types adding to the variety of observed forms. It may occur as fibrous, granular, lamellar, or compact. Cleavage is usually in three directions parallel to the rhombohedron form.

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DETAILS
SPECIES
Fluorite & Calcite
LOCATION
China
SIZE
Plate 4.2 x 2.8"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#138713