Aragonite & Kutnohorite Crystal Geode Half - Italy

This is a breathtaking geode half containing microscopic aragonite crystals, as well as rare kutnohorite spheres. The translucent, elongated crystals are aragonite and can be found coating the entire interior of this geode. The small dark spheres are kutnaohorite, a rare calcium manganese carbonate mineral with the chemical formula Ca(Mn,Mg,Fe)(CO3)2.

The crystals are best viewed in detail under a microscope. The cavity of this small geode is about 1.2" wide.

Morocco is well known for its abundant aragonite formations, most commonly seen as radiating clusters of clear to deep reddish prismatic hexagonal crystals known as floaters. Such mineral aggregations are called floaters because they form without attachments to walls, seemingly free-floating in the matrices they are extracted from.

Besides these floaters, Moroccan aragonite takes just about every other form of the mineral you can think of. Aragonite commonly forms stalactitic and stalagmitic formation in caves, even coating the walls and ceilings of caves in nubby formations called cave popcorn. Botryoidal, fibrous, and scalenohedral aragonite also occurs.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Aragonite & Kutnohorite
LOCATION
Levane, Arezzo Province, Tuscany, Italy
SIZE
1.6" wide
CATEGORY
ITEM
#61770