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MINERALS FEATURED IN 2008--still | 2007 Minerals | 2006 Minerals | 2005 Minerals | 2004 Minerals | 2003 Minerals | 2002 Minerals | 2001 Minerals | 2000 Minerals | Junior-Size Minerals by the Year | Past Offers & Reports
January
2002
Another wonderful month as we featured Barite [BaSO4] from a classic locality on the Palos Verdes
Peninsula near Los Angeles, California. You probably thought all of L.A.
was built over-- not quite yet! These pieces were recently collected
from seams exposed in the sea cliffs of the Palos Verdes hills.
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February 2002
Keeping
with the February Tucson Gem & Mineral Show theme of "African
Minerals and Gem Art," we featured Malachite [Cu2+2(CO3)(OH)2]
from the People's Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire.) Our specimens were
of a fibrous variety of malachite with a lovely silky sheen, as seen in the photo on the
right. The write-up went into the history of this mineral, prized since
earliest times for its beauty and as an ore of copper.
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March 2002
March 2002 was a special month as we featured
fluorescent fluorite [CaF2]
from the exciting new find in England. The write-up
explained the fascinating phenomenon of fluorescence in minerals.
The 1994 Mineralogical
Record described the fluorite from the Rogerley mine, County Durham,
England as "sharp, glassy, deep bottle-green cubes" and said the
"fluorite is fiercely fluorescent and the color defies any daylight
film to reproduce it."
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April 2002
April was
another wonderful month as we featured pink to wine-red eudialyte, with this
amazing chemical formula: [Na15Ca6(Fe2+,Mn2+)3Zr3(Si,Nb)(Si25O73)(O,OH,H2O)3(Cl,OH)2]!
It comes from the Kipawa Complex, a syenite gneiss occurrence in Quebec, Canada, that
produces many rare and fascinating minerals. Many of our specimens also contained other rare
minerals (richterite, albite, mosandrite, and agrellite) in addition to
the eudialyte.
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May 2002
In May 2002, we featured the mineral Actinolite [Ca2(Mg,Fe2+)5Si8O22(OH)2],
which is found in the form of attractive radiating green sprays from
Wrightwood, San Bernardino County, California. The write-up described the
two best known varieties of actinolite, much-loved nephrite jade and
widely-feared asbestos.
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June 2002
June was a special month as we
featured Hematite
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July 2002
July
was another special month, as we featured fine green crystals of Pyromorphite [Pb5(PO4)3Cl] on matrix from the new find in Quangxi Province,
China, that has caused so much excitement in the mineral world. Closely
related to vanadinite, our November 2001 featured mineral, these were
especially attractive specimens.
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August 2002
August closed out an excellent summer of beautiful
specimens as we feature pink drusy crystals of Cobaltoan Dolomite [CaMgCO3],
one of the pretty minerals from the cobalt- and copper-rich Democratic
Republic of the Congo, where our February malachite specimens were dug.
The write-up cleared up the confusion over whether these should be called
cobaltocalcite, cobaltoan calcite, or cobaltoan dolomite.
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September 2002
In September we featured lovely specimens of
grass-green Conichalcite [CaCu2+(AsO4)(OH)],
from Mina Ojuela, Mapimi, Durango, Mexico. The write-up explained the
several series that conichalcite forms, and gave the history of this
fascinating Mexican mining district.
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October 2002
We were ready to take the plunge in
October, and for the first time feature a fossil in the Club-- Ammonites
Replaced by Calcite, from Madagascar. (After all, most
fossils were formed when a mineral replaced a shell, bone, or the
like.) Each fossil was cut it half and polished to show off its
striking colors. The write-up explained how
fossils are formed.
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November 2002
November was an outstanding
month, as we featured Heulandite [(Na,Ca)2-3Al3(Al,Si)2Si13O36C12H2O]
from a new discovery near Challis, Idaho. The crystals were a pretty
peachy pink to salmon color on a white matrix of mordenite [(Na2,C6]C28H2O].
The write-up explained the difference between Heulandite-Ca, Heulandite-K,
Heulandite-Na, and Heulandite-Sr (Our
specimens were of Heulandite-Ca.)
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finished the year with another special month, as we featured in December 2002 the raspberry-red
garnet group member Grossular [Ca3Al2(SiO4)3],
from the find at Sierra de Cruces, Coahuila, Mexico. These were very attractive specimens
from a find that is normally quite expensive. |
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