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A spectacular longwave mineral. Brilliant and unmistakable yellow fluorescing wernerite - a member of the scapolite family. These pieces have a purple calcite veining which really only shows under MW, never before reported. Calcite verified through the obvious cleavage and vinegar test. Very interesting pieces.
In our experience, wernerite is always fluorescent bright yellow LW and a dimmer yellow SW. We admit that we can't be sure we've checked pieces with midwave in the past, but with the new MW flashlights we now check everything. Imagine our shock when we saw this piece! The violet area is strongly fluorescent under MW but shows zero response under LW, and a very minimal response under fluorescent tube SW, none under 255nm flashlight (to be expected - tube lights generate a little MW while the LED is pure 255nm SW). These pieces are from the original find. Don't think we've noticed this mineral in later pieces, but it certainly makes sense for collectors to examine their pieces with MW.
They were nicknamed "Yooperlites" which is derived from the name “yooper”. A yooper is a nickname for the Upper Peninsula natives and these fluorescent stones quickly gained fame. After data was published on these fluorescent stones, it was discovered that sodalite is the actual true mineral that is fluorescing orange.
365nm UV light is often called "blacklight". Before the advent of longwave UV LEDs, blacklight fluorescent tubes, (the kinds used in hippie days to light up psychedelic posters) were the standard longwave UV light for our hobby. They were not very powerful but they did light a large area.
Enter 365nm UV LEDs
First, an animation showing the difference between the UV flashlight we recommend (365nm filtered UV flashlight) versus unfiltered 395nm UV flashlights we see many folks carrying around at shows. So. much. visible purple light. We selected a bunch of rocks as a demonstration. Took pictures of them under his flashlight without the filter and then with the filter.
