3" Green Fluorite Crystals with Calcite - Mongolia

This specimen contains small green, cubic fluorite crystals. This mineral specimen was collected from the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The fluorite formed in association with small calcite crystal that encrust many of the fluorite crystals.

Under long wave UV lighting, these fluorite crystals fluoresce a vibrant purple, while the calcite fluoresces a yellow/orange.

Fluorite is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluorine, CaF2. The word fluorite is from the Latin fluo-, which means "to flow". In 1852 fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon known as fluorescence, or the property of fluorite to glow a different color depending upon the bandwidth of the ultraviolet light it is exposed to. Fluorite occurs commonly in cubic, octahedral, and dodecahedral crystals in many different colors. These colors range from colorless and completely transparent to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, or black. Purples and greens tend to be the most common colors seen, and colorless, pink, and black are the rarest.

Calcite, CaCO3, is a carbonate mineral and the most stable polymorph of calcium carbonate. The other polymorphs are the minerals aragonite and vaterite. Calcite crystals are trigonal-rhombohedral, though actual calcite rhombohedra are rare as natural crystals. However, they show a remarkable variety of habits including acute to obtuse rhombohedra, tabular forms, and prisms. Calcite exhibits several twinning types adding to the variety of observed forms. It may occur as fibrous, granular, lamellar, or compact. Cleavage is usually in three directions parallel to the rhombohedron form.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Fluorite & Calcite
LOCATION
Choir area, Gobi Desert, Mongolia
SIZE
3 x 2.1"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#100749