FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Philip G]

Hi again,

Thanks David ... that is a big question to answer and way beyond the experience of this amateur mineral collector!

I presume that the Mn and Fe oxide deposits are regularly seen together in this region. As mentioned previously, the Park and Urswick limestone formations seen at Middlebarrow are found on both sides of the Bay and so, due to the relatively small distances involved, similar occurrences of both oxides in those formations but in differing amounts is probably to be expected.

Most of the major hematite deposits in South Cumbria seem to have been in the lowest Carboniferous limestone formations, named as Dalton, Red Hill Oolite and Martin, which occur immediately below the Park and Urswick.

I only have experience of surface mineral collecting in each of the areas and therefore can only relate to the very small amount of minerals seen and collected on dumps, tips etc. I do not know if the presence of some manganese ironstones were ever of great economical importance. Perhaps someone else could help to answer that question.

There are several very interesting BGS geological memoirs and reports on the mineral deposits and limestone formations of South Cumbria and North Lancashire to be found at the BGS website https://www.bgs.ac.uk/ and perhaps these will provide the answers to your questions. The whole question of the formation of the West and South Cumbrian metasomatic hematite deposits is apparently a quite complex one but it is covered in great detail within the geological memoirs suggested.

Also, for interest, refer to the BGS Mineral Reconnaissance Report PDF download at:
https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=1740
(links normalized by FMF)

Hope that helps a little.
Cheers.
Phil

[nurbo]

That helps a lot, thanks Phil,

i tried to use mindat to look at Pyrolusite occurances in Lancashire and Cumbria, bit of a waste of time really, there are no sites on there in Lancashire where Pyrolusite is listed and there and only a dozen or so in Cumbria (Of which Stank is one).

[nurbo]

First up is a piece from an unusual locality, Gutterby Pit, its a Carbonate, (Aragonite or Calcite) on Dolomite, ex Lindsay Greenbank Collection, now in mine. Secondly a very nice Kidney Ore from Beckermet (!970's piece)

[nurbo]

Im not sure if this is allowed but Ill do it anyway ....... I thought Id enter these, they arent in my collection as objects, though they would have been if it were possible, but the pictures are in my collection of photos, around late February I was working up in the field when I noticed many of the horses hoof prints had the most wonderfully defined Ice crystals, flat sheets of thin Ice had formed over the face of the cavities created in the mud by the horses hooves and fine Ice crystals had developed in amazing geometric formations on top of this. Ive always been fascinated by the formation of Ice crystals and snow but Ive never seen any like these before. The dimensions are approximate as I didnt have a tape measure to hand. The quality of some of the photos is unfortunately a bit poor.

[Jordi Fabre]

[Carles Millan]

[Tobi]

:-)

But Carles is absolutely right: Ice, eventhough it is only crystalline at low temperatures, IS a mineral - if a mineral is a solid, anorganic chemical compound with a certain chemical composition and a crystalline structure (and i think this is the definition). The fact that ii melts when the temperature is above 0°C does not exclude it from the minerals: Just think of mercury which is also liquid at "normal" temperatures. And finally, every mineral has a temperature where it melts. Some need thousands of °C, ice needs some less ;-)

[nurbo]

Having read what Carles and Tobias wrote I had a bit of a google around and found this

https://emu.arsusda.gov/snowsite/default.html
(link normalized by FMF)

lots of Low Temperature SEM photos of snow, I never realised there was so much variation, I especially liked the photos of Martian CO2 ice.

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi to everybody!
I think there is nothing to discuss: if you read the "Glossary of Mineral Species" (you all should know what I'm talking about, I don't quote the author and the editing firm otherwise it seems to be an advertisement), the name "Ice" is reported with its chemical formula (H2O) and the crystal system (hexagonal).
Therefore our friend Nurbo DID photograph minerals when photographing ice crystals! And personally I liked those photos.
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Carles Millan]

[nurbo]

Maybe there is a business opportunity here for some industrious forum member, building refrigerated display cabinets to keep Ice crystals in.

[Carles Millan]

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi Carles and hi to everybody!
Ok it's not worthy to spend money and time for purchasing an ice crystal, but it is worthy to take a picture of it as Nurbo did. And moreover we are this way sure it will never ever melt! Hahahaha!!!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[nurbo]

Some more from my collection, firstly my current favourite Kidney Ore, what can I say? its a stunner, from the Frizington Parks mine workings, so it could be from the New Parkside Mine, like many of the West Cumberland Iron Ore Field localities, they link up underground and the given localities are merely the mine entrance they came out of,.these places were like Swiss cheese, holes everywhere and many of them connected to each other, the miners would gather specimens wherever they thought they could make a Quid and label them from the mine they worked at, rather than the mine they had pinched them from. (Sorry Louis :-) )
On the subject of Swiss Cheese the second photo is of a Malachite blob on an undefined matrix from a mine near to Barras End in North Yorkshire, this area has so many mines in such a small area Id say its impossible to be totally accurate as to which specific mine this piece came from, they all worked the same ore body so it doesnt really matter.

[nurbo]

Today I thought Id post this piece from the Keswick Mining Museum.