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Calcite Palygorskite & Romanèchite

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SLN763111

Calcite Palygorskite & Romanèchite

Description Tabs

Description
Locality: 
Palmarejo Mine, Palmarejo, Chínipas Municipality, Chihuahua, Mexico
Class: 
Combination
Size Range: 
Museum (18cm plus)
Size: 
9.2 × 6.1 × 18.9 cm
Weight: 
1 016.00gr
Description

Wonderful rare specimen of Calcite from Mexico. According to recent research these specimens started as elongated "fish-tail" Calcite crystals. Later, more layers of manganese rich Calcite were deposited. After this, things got interesting because there was a uni-directional flow in the cavity where these Spacimens formed, and this caused a thin, white layer of Palygorskite to form just on one side of the specimen - the side facing the flow. It seems that nothing else could grow on top of the Palygorskite, so subsequent generations of minerals were only deposited on the uncoated surfaces. The thin black layer you see around the white Palygorskite is Romanechite, and then after that you can see a new layer of colorless to slightly orangish red translucent crystal Calcite

Mineral Data
What's on the rock

Calcite

Polymorph of: 
Formula: 
CaCO3
Strunz: 
5.AB.05
Crystal System: 
Trigonal
Hardness: 
3.0
Streak: 
White

Palygorskite

Formula: 
(Mg,Al)5(Si,Al)8O20(OH)2·8H2O
Strunz: 
9.EE.20
Hardness: 
2.0 - 2.5
Type Locality: 
Second Mine, Popovka River, Palygorskaya Distance of Perm Railways, Permskaya Oblast', Middle Urals, Urals Region, Russia...

Romanèchite

Formula: 
(Ba,H2O)2Mn5O10
Strunz: 
4.DK.10
Hardness: 
5.0 - 6.0
Type Locality: 
Manganese deposit, Romanèche-Thorens, La Chapelle-de-Guinchay, Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France

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