FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Singingstone48]

The fossil in the septarian is almost assuredly a cephalopod, probably a straight one given the age of the strata you found it in. Concretions need a nucleus to begin forming, and fossils are often used. Here in the USA, in the mudstones from South Dakota, ammonites of Mesozoic age are found in mudstone concretions up to 5 ft across! Most of the cephalopods of the Carboniferous (Mississippian/Pennsylvanian in the USA) were straight, and some got up to 20' long!

[geoalfon]

Hi Nurbo, you Green Apophyllite is from in a well near Bidkin a town about 20 kms south of Aurangabad city.
You can see in http(:)//matrixmineralia(.)com/Pages/green(.)htm
Best regards
Alfonso

[nurbo]

Hi,
Thanks very much for the locality information and the Cephalopod identity,. The matrixmineralia article is fantastic.

[nurbo]

Here are a few more, Including some "Sand balls" I read they were formed by lightning hitting the desert and melting the sand which sounds feasible though Im very open to suggestions they may be formed in some other way.

[nurbo]

As far as I remember I picked this up from on the side of a disused railway track back in the early 1970's in North West England. It was an old railway line from the days before they put crushed limestone under the rails, when they used slag. It measures 12.5 x 5 x 4 cm and weighs about 439 grammes. The photo is overexposed, it shows the crystalisation pattern really nicely. (I wish I'd done it on purpose then I would look like a better photographer than I really am :-) . it is quite black in person.

[nurbo]

Here are some Wulfenites the label says from Mibladen, Im happy to be corrected if this is wrong, or if anyone knows anything more specific please let me know..

The first Wulfenite is 9mm across and it looks great aginst the Baryte, the whole specimen is 30 x 20 x 10 mm.

The second one has them stacked together, the Wulfenites are 19mm across the longest edge and it has quite a few shiny grey crystals on the bottom which Ive assumed to be Galena, its very heavy for its size. measures 23 x 21x 22 mm.

The third is in my eyes one of my most aesthetically pleasing specimens, the largest Wulfenite is 10 mm across, the whole piece measures 70 x 75 x 35 mm.

b

[Jordi Fabre]

Mibladen, Midelt, Morocco is the right locality for these Wulfenites.

Jordi

[parfaitelumiere]

Hi Nurbo!
Happy to see you ,and to see your new specimens!
Regarding wulfs,omeone told me of boulmaden,I have baught a specimen,and it has the same shape,and the Baryte is really similar to yours.
This locality is neart to Mibladen.
Do you have "ghosts" in your crystals?

[nurbo]

Thanks for confirming that Jordi, Ive learned never to presume labels are correct.

Parfaitlumiere there are no ghosts in these ones, Id like to see your Wulfenite from Boulmaden, maybe you could post a photo in your collection photo's?
I recently got this too, its a Topaz on Mica from Mogok, unfortunately Im not sure where in Mogok. The Topaz measures 9 x 5 mm . the Mica is 25 x 15 mm.

[Ed Huskinson]

Nurbo. Welcome to the 'hood. I really like your "Little Wulfie". It's a nice specimen. Keep 'em coming!

Ed in Kingman

[nurbo]

This is a tiny Rutile on Hematite from Novo Horizonte, it measures 17mm from the base to the top of the rutile, the best thing for me about this is it is under 2mm thick.

[nurbo]

Some more

[Ed Huskinson]

Nurbo: DSC7257 is hemimorphite. Could be Santa Eulalia, could be Mapimi. Dr Megaw will help with this one.

Thanks for sharing,

Ed

[nurbo]

Hi ed,
Thanks for that, I spent a while trying to identify this one, it isnt fluorescent which made me wonder about its labelling, the way I am forced to identify some things( due to bad eyesight) is to take photos enlarge them and work from that, one photo I took clearly showed a chisel shaped termination, like an upside down isosceles triangle so I thought the label was correct as this is common to Adamite, now you suggest Hemimorphite Ive had another look at the picture and Im wondering if the one with the chisel shaped termination might be sticking out horizontally (ish), so Im viewing it at 60 degrees to itself. Ive added the photo, this one is so white it was really hard to get any clear definition on the photograph, my digital camera (fuji s9500) is fairly useless when it comes to fine detail on specimens such as this.
It seems everytime I post pictures I mislabel something, still Im not too worried about that you always learn more from getting something wrong than getting something right.

[Ed Huskinson]

Hey Nurbo, no big deal. A few more photos of the thing, and we might even be able to nail the locality on the hemimorphite for you. See if you can show the whole specimen and the backside as well. The matrix will be key for the locality.

Keep 'em coming!!

Ed