[Rockhounds] Crystal Puzzle Much Closer to Solution

Carolyn Reynard sunstone33 at verizon.net
Mon Jul 13 10:37:04 PDT 2009


Thank you Larry, Pete R. , Axel,  Earl & Pete M.,

The one face of broken partial crystal in question  is 2 inches long,  another  face is 1 7/8 inches wide. 

I have thought about all you have mentioned. I rechecked the hardness with metal hardness points, but this time studying the scratch under the microscope.  I certainly was wrong about the 7.5..Clearly it is in the feldspar hardness range 6-6.5.  The texture is finely perthitic without much doubt. I am very familiar with the texture of apatite and I don't believe it is an apatite.. I have tried to measure the angle of the crystal with my antique paper and plastic Penfield Contact Goniometer. The one angle I believe I can determine is 44 degrees. Certainly not hexagonal. 

I have posted two scanned images on http://rockhounds.ning.com
Please go my page; Carolyn C. Reynard.

I do intend to photograph the crystal this afternoon and post the images. They should be better.

I believe I fell into the trap of quick ID.  I listened to several who identified it as beryl, all along I thought it must be feldspar with the texture and fluorescence. I doubted.
Most likely that is why I was trying to put the two together in a pseudomorph.

I feel quite comfortable now that it  is a feldspar. What say all?

Carolyn Reynard, 
amateur geologist

--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---


More information about the Rockhounds mailing list