[Rockhounds] when volcanoes drop bombs: giant crystal payload

[pmodreski at aol.com]

Don, right, I think I said the wrong thing, I kind of forgot that the "sunstone" is usually plagioclase, labradorite-bytownite at most of the localities, oligoclase in some other?places.? Sorry, I think I was getting my moonstones and my sunstones mixed up--what happens when you write quickly...

others megacryst sites, of course, do also include K-spar as megacrysts.

cheers, and happy XRD,
Pete


-----Original Message-----
From: DonH <donhalterman at verizon.net>
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors <rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Wed, 1 Aug 2007 9:30 am
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] when volcanoes drop bombs: giant crystal payload


Pmodreski at aol.com wrote:?
?
> > In a message dated 8/1/2007 8:06:12 AM Mountain Daylight Time, > nospam at orerockon.com writes:?
> > It's sunstone, it is from a well know collecting site on a cinder > cone in WY just over the ID border.?
> > Ah, but sunstone is a descriptive term, is it sanidine or orthoclase? > Probably orthoclase. Don, the master feldsparologist, will certainly find out.?
?
Holy cow, what a way to start the morning. OK, in sum, I can say the gentleman definitely found it in Idaho; so perhaps there is more than one volcanic field with this type of formation? I never had volcanology so I don't know if this could have blown that far from WY.?
?
The geologist who is working with these kept calling them plagioclase. But there is no point in speculation or pontification until we get a chance to look at them. He had some of them prepped for mass spectrometry so I suppose he'll know the trace elements and REEs soon.?
I will try to x-ray them today but maybe someone else is using the instrument.?
?
Don?
?
?
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