Quartz Crystals on Calcite - San Antonio Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico
Small delicate crystals of bright green fluorescing quartz are peppered around a matrix of calcite on this striking specimen.
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Gem Tugtupite, Chkalovite - Greenland
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SKU: MSJ0321
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An incredible, unusual gemmy and extremely tenebrescent tugtupite specimen from Kangerlussaq. Large and well-formed, gemmy tugtupite crystals – these kind of tug crystals are distinct to Kangerlussaq. These types of tugtupite crystals rare as hen's teeth, only found in two places in the world - Mont Saint-Hilaire, Canada and Greenland, and rarely offered.
On the left corner of one side is some beautiful green chkalovite (almost in crystal form).
Under midwave this piece glows all sorts purple-lilac, magenta, red colors. It also displays an incredible phosphorescence.
The brownish area is still considered tugtupite. The center circle area is a deep dark purple is unknown, probably chkalovite.
Museum quality. An outstanding tugtupite specimen.
There's a lot of history in these pieces. Early in our travels to Greenland we stumbled across pieces like this in an area of what appeared to be circles of rocks - kind of like a series of very large old campfires (which they weren't as there is no firewood in Greenland). Within these circles we found these very unusual pieces such as this but could not find a source other than the rock circles.
We eventually found the source (see story below) and the resulting specimens were one of the prettiest from the complex IMHO - we nicknamed them "Kangerella". The deposit of this very unique material has since been mined out we only had a few remaining pieces left, occasionally finding one hidden in our inventory such as this. It is a beautiful pinkish/red fluorescing tugtupite, along with greenish/yellow fluorescing polylithionite and blueish fluorescing chkalovite and dark orange sodalite. The tugtupite fluoresces differently under each of the main wavelengths (like terlingua calcite) and is very phosphorescent (see pics).
(More history): We did some research and found that Sorensen (a Danish geologist in the 50's) had discovered a line of white boulders stretching from the cliffs to the shoreline in this area (the Kangerlussaq Fjord). Only then did we realize what the rock circles were; the locals had obliterated the white boulders in search for tugtupite (most commonly found in association with chkalovite - a white mineral). What was left were the circles of rock pieces.
This was a fortuitous find. During a later tour (2005) one of the group (a fellow named Herb) decided to trace this trail of rock chips, on his hands and knees until he found the source - a vein hidden in the crumbled syenite gravel. This was eventually excavated to reveal a small but beautiful vein of purple colored tugtupite; many cabochons were made from this material, and some superb collector pieces found their way into the collector community. We nicknamed that material "Kangerella". Those were the good ol' days!
"Red" Sodalite (Hackmanite) - Deeply Tenebrescent Greenland Mineral
Red sodalite is named for the color it takes on when exposed to sunlight; it is nicely tenebrescent under longwave UV. Under shortwave UV the color deepens, in seconds, to almost black in some areas.
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A Short Study on Rare Occurrences of Apatite from the Ilimaussaq Complex, Greenland
Rarest of the rare from Greenland - apatite has only been observed in a handful of pieces over the decade+ we have been exploring Greenland. Blue apatite crystals fluorescing under UV.
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