FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[brent]

Hello,

I found this small green hexagonal crystal in a high grade metamorphic lens and I'm not sure what it might be. It looks similar to crystals of tourmaline, apatite or beryl I've seen online although I"m not sure how to identify it further. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Brent

[Pete Richards]

It would help to know where it was collected, but I would say it looks like apatite. A hardness test would certainly help differentiate between the alternatives you propose. In addition, if it's apatite, it will dissolve readily in dilute muriatic acid. Both of these suggestions presuppose that you have some material that you can sacrifice.

I would not particularly expect to find beryl or tourmaline, at least with this appearance, in a metamorphic environment, unless they were formed by an igneous precursor.

[Carles Curto]

See information about fluorapatite from Ontario and other similar apatite localities.
Quite sure it is fluorapatite.

[Jordi Fabre]

Please see: Fluorapatite from Canada in FMF Gallery

[brent]

Thank you, I agree it really does look like flourapatite! I will purchase a hardness tester soon which will help me identify these minerals I'm collecting. I found this specimen on baffin island in a marble or calc-silicate matrix surrounded by a granite batholith.

[Mike Wood]

Hello Brent, welcome to FMF.
We are all looking forward to hearing about what you have been collecting; please keep posting !
Minerals from Baffin Island are rather unrepresented here, I for one would like to see some more ! I don't suppose you live there, by any chance ?

Regards, Mike

[brent]

Hello Mike, thanks very much for welcoming me here! I'm grateful to have found this site after a few years of collecting and slowly trying to document the minerals I've found. I studied some geology in university and although it's not my profession I will always have a keen interest in searching for nice quality specimens, and learning more about the processes involved in their formation.
Yes I do live here on southern Baffin Island, we're very lucky to have such a vast resource of different geological features here. I'm mostly interested in metamorphic environments at the moment however there is an Archean craton to the north I will eventually travel to and numerous pegmatite dykes nearby. I look forward to sharing many of my past and future finds here!

Brent

[Mike Wood]

"Yes I do live here on southern Baffin Island, we're very lucky to have such a vast resource of different geological features here. I'm mostly interested in metamorphic environments at the moment however there is an Archean craton to the north I will eventually travel to and numerous pegmatite dykes nearby. I look forward to sharing many of my past and future finds here! "

Brent, that is so exciting, I just can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it ! I'm sure many others on FMF are too. I love the bare treeless and barren mountainous landscapes of the arctic; have done for a long time. The closest I've got to those regions is Northern Norway - I went there twice in the mid 1980's - love seeing all the bare rock and geology exposed. I also like the quietness.
The Cairngorms is the closest thing we have in the UK to that kind of environment and I love going there. Of course it's not as tough as Baffin Island but it's a bit easier to get to!
I guess the snow cover makes prospecting impossible for most of the year, is that the case?

Regards,

Mike Wood :-)