5.5" Purple Octahedral Fluorite Crystals on Quartz - China

Purple Octahedral Fluorite Crystals on Quartz - China #223317

This gorgeous specimen features octahedral purple fluorite crystals that have been exposed by etching of the quartz matrix. Secondary growths of cubic fluorite can be seen perched atop some of the octahedral fluorites. The specimen comes from the De'an fluorite mine in Jiangxi, China. Under short-wave ultraviolet light, the fluorite crystals exhibit purple fluorescence.

It comes with an acrylic display stand.

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.

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