[Rockhounds] NEEN site

[R. Peter Richards]

JR, et al:

I have been doing some SEM work recently on specimens from the Mex- 
Tex Mine, one of the Blanchard mines.  Most of the greenish stuff  
from there and from the Sunshine mines is brochantite, and it  
typically is a blueish green.  I have identified atacamite as dark  
green prismatic crystals with a chisel-like termination (think cold  
chisel) and libethenite as tiny light green crystals with a similar  
habit. Malachite is not uncommon, and is usually a grass-green  
color.  I suspect that the material you posted, JR, is malachite.

Pete Richards


On Apr 6, 2009, at 3:02 PM, J. R. Hodel wrote:

> Hi all:
>
> Well, no surprise, Julie has done a good job setting up a photo  
> site we can use.  I joined yesterday, which was a pretty spring  
> day.  Today the temperature is supposed to drop all day, and it's  
> raining steadily, hard at times.  Tonight and Tuesday night it's  
> supposed to snow!
>
> This isn't part of my plan!  I was in Arizona, looking out for  
> signs of spring to let me know when to head back home!  It got hot  
> and dusty out west, and I heard tell that the frogs were starting  
> to chorus and peep back home in the hills, so I believed it was  
> time.  Not!
>
> But I have this new toy that Julie set up to keep me busy.  And  
> Martha kept mentioning how bad the specimens were getting to look,  
> with dust and cobwebs (mostly cat hair, really!) on them they  
> didn't really shine or glisten much, and she thought a good spring  
> cleaning was just what they needed.
>
> So I spent 3 days cleaning everyone off with Dawn, lukewarm water,  
> and the softest toothbrush I could find.  I did damage a wullfenite  
> TN, but repaired it with Elmer's Glue, and you can't really see  
> that it was ever damaged without looking at the bottom from in  
> back.  It actually looks better all shiny and repaired than it did  
> all fusty with dust and lint.
>
> I took some pictures of some of the more interesting things while  
> trying to get things reorganized in the shelves, and noticed a  
> couple of things I wanted to ask about.
>
> I have a little linarite on galena from the Blanchard mine in New  
> Mexico (one of my favorite states!) and in cleaning it, I noticed  
> that right by some of the most electric blue you ever saw there  
> were tiny little green crystals.  I looked the locality up on  
> MinDat (Thanks, Jolyon, what a fantasticly valuable tool!) and  
> noticed right off that some of the adits were reported to have  
> atacamite!  Now I have several nice Atacamite specimens, and on  
> those, it is a brightly lusterous, shiny, dark green glassy  
> crystal, or more often a rosette of acicular crystals.
>
> This little cluster of tiny crystals is just not shiny.  Just a  
> bright piney green...  maybe malachite?
>
> Anyway, I put a picture of it up on Julie's new site, so take a  
> look.  The whole cluster of 4 or 5 crystals is just a few mm  
> across, which is why I never noticed it before, nor did anyone  
> else.  I also put up one of my favorite personal finds, a  
> fossillized brachiopod geodized with multiple crystals inside, so  
> take a look.
>
> Let me know what you think that tiny little green hicky is, too!
>
> KoR,
> JR
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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___________________________________
R. Peter Richards
rpr at heidelberg.edu
Morphological crystallographer





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