FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[vic rzonca]

Broke quarantine today and took a trek through the traps of the Holyoke Range of Western Massachusetts, and came upon what I believe to be a rather large, for the location, heulandite. I may be wrong. The other option would be stilbite. I'm going to scope it and give it a better look. Any comments as to ID are welcome. The other find was a bit of decent prehnite and babingtonite. Needs some prep.

[vic rzonca]

I've come to the conclusion that what I have collected on this day is apophyllite. But any additional opinions are welcome. Mineral ID from photos, I know, is hard. Thanks for your indulgence.

[Sante Celiberti]

Whether it be heulandite, stilbite or apophyllite it is a very sculptural piece.
And the babingtonite on Prehnite rivals the Chinese ones.
Congratulations, Vic: good find for a quarantine period.

Greetings. Stay safe.
Sante

[Tobi]

Really nice finds, Vic, especially the babingtonites!!!

[Michael Shaw]

Nice finds Vic, especially the babingtonite. I wouldn't be so quick to discount the heulandite on the first specimen. I see at least a few crystals that show the typical coffin-shaped morphology of heulandite. There may well be stilbite or other zeolite minerals on the piece as well. Hard to discern discrete crystals from the photo.

I'm not familiar with this location. If you can divulge the county and nearest urban center, I will add it to the FMF database.

Michael

[Tony L. Potucek]

Good trekking finds, pard! I would call that a great collecting day!

[John S. White]

Hi Vic:

Delighted to see you getting out at this particular time and, especially, having such great success in finding wonderful minerals. Good for you my friend. Wish I could see the mystery mineral in person so I could offer an opinion but just from the photo I have no guess. Can you tell us if the "traps" represent quarries that you could gain access to or other exposures rather than working quarries?

[vic rzonca]

Hey there buddy, hope you are well and staying that way. I'll give you a call. I hesitate to elaborate to much on my associations with the trap quarries around my area. The local club gripes that I'm an "outlaw collector". I've collected these traps for 50 years and you develop relationships after that long that I keep to myself, as we all do. But, I like the moniker. So, letting blasting agent and heavy equipment be your friend is the technique of choice. These minerals are found at the bottom of three, 60' benches only accessible with tons of explosives, as my basement foundation attests to. Not to mention the location used to be called East Mountain, with a two hundred foot + exposure, long gone. To your question, John, working quarries, mostly. And I was born in Westfield, MA. so you can check on locations in that area, I'm sure you're familiar with one of them. Not to put too fine a point on it.

[vic rzonca]

[John S. White]

Well done Vic. I did not expect you to reveal any of your crime scenes, just the answer, yes some working quarries. I am sure that you do not care to risk prosecution. That was quite a reasonable letter from Mr. Lane. I have a friend who precludes his concern by having a million dollar insurance policy against getting injured in a working quarry. With this he is able to collect in about 10 quarries that are otherwise closed to other collectors.

[Gagat Minerals]

[vic rzonca]

GM, I have only one specimen identified as heulandite, from an old collection, collected at the same location. I believe the small white bits are the heulandite, the larger form seems to be, in the hand, calcite, because of obvious cleavage exposed on an edge. I hope to post a better image of the bundles of crystals. It was suggested that what I have is datolite, which is more common than either apothillite, stillbite or heulandite. I've got to do some homework on this one.

[rweaver]

Check out the trips through the US pages and also do a search for "Frank Imbriacco". That should lead you to your pictures. And also do a search on MINDAT using Franks name.

[rweaver]

One in my collection. This was at one time in Franks collection.

[vic rzonca]