FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Elise]

My latest Lithographie just landed on my desk: "Smithsonite - Think Zinc!" I was amazed how many forms and colors this mineral can take on. Of special interest to me was the section on causation of color as this is something I am researching (specimens of green, pink, blue) -- the two page spread, 58/59 was especially visually appealing to me; I have been using those two crayolas extensively since kindergarten. One of the forms which was most intriguing is the one pictured in the middle of page 52, "crystal ball." Wow! How did that happen? The other one which appealed to me is on page 28 in Peter Megaw's story. Actually, this issue is just filled with spectacular specimens. It would be fun to see others from FMF member's collections, if they would like to share some photos.

Cheers!
Elise

[Jordi Fabre]

[Montanpark]

Ok, here is one of my collection.
Width of specimen 6 cm, Tsumeb mine, Tsumeb, namibia, acquired in 2005 in Tsumeb.

cheers
Roger

[Peter Megaw]

Thanks...Smithsonite was a pleasure to work on, and Gloria a pleasure to work with. She's working on Topaz and Apatite, so if you have good shots, get them to her, she can only work with what people provide!

[Jesse Fisher]

I do not own a single smithsonite - I can't afford to collect everything! I did, however, get the opportunity to photograph much of Bill and Diana Dameron's smithsonite collection for possible inclusion in the issue. Gloria was kind enough to choose a goodly number of them for the issue, but here are a couple of my personal favorites that didn't make it.

[Jordi Fabre]

A little prettiness

[Harjo]

"I do not own a single smithsonite" O yes you do Jesse, it's in that muddy hole you crawl into every summer ;-)

[Jesse Fisher]

I thought you took that with you, Harjo.

[Elise]

Today I was very happy to find that one of our specimens is a blue-green botryoidal form from Laurium, Greece; which from this issue's article by Wolfgang Wendel on the locality, seems to be very special in terms of history. For the Magdalena, Mexico locality, this same blue-green is said to be cuprian; I don't yet know whether that applies to that from Laurium. I hope to dig into the records to find more background information on the Laurium specimen and also hopefully to find more specimens in storage that might be brought out. Thank you for sharing such wonderful photos; I hope they continue to appear!

Cheers! Elise

[Debbie Woolf]

I really enjoyed looking at these pictures, thanks for sharing.

Here's some of my Smithsonite specimens from Tsumeb

[Debbie Woolf]

Smithsonite 'fingers' from Berg Aukas, Namibia.

[Dawn MinetteCooper]

As an avid collector of smithsonite for many years, I am enjoying the positively delightful group of specimens in this string. Smithsonite is a true love of mine. Thank you all for the beautiful pictures of your specimens.

[Jordi Fabre]

Smithsonite - Think Green! ;-)

[Jason]

Wow..some really nice specs. and pics!!!

[David Beck]

Cuprian Smithsonite stalactites from Tsumeb.

[Ed Huskinson]

Fur Elise. (Pretend there's an umlaut over that u)...


Good idea, Elise: Here are a few smithsonites from my collection. Feel free to comment, criticize, and elucidate.

Ed In Kingman

[Peter Megaw]

I remember when you bought the Kelly Ed...I still love it (even if it isn't Mexican)

[Tobi]

Smithsonite, Skorpion Mine (Namibia), 65 x 50 x 30 mm.

[Pete Richards]

Here's a cute one, from Rush, Arkansas. This is basically a distorted single crystal, about 2 mm wide. Each end of the "barbell" has a triangular cross section, with the angles of one end oriented oppositely to those of the other end - would form a star of David if viewed end-on - fully consistent with the symmetry of smithsonite.

[Ed Huskinson]

Wow!! Nice crystal Pete!! I had a calcite, a calcite from Charcas, that exhibited a similar property. Almost hemimorphic in nature, in that that the low-angle terminations were reversed, just as on your crystal.

Here's another, a couple of single intergrown crystals.

Thanks for sharing.

Ed