FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Peter Megaw]

Picked up this polished slab labeled "Thulite Hornblende" at a estate sale because the pink is quite pretty (much better than my phone camera rendition) and the reaction rims around it. It is marked "Thulite Hornblende" on the back in printing worse than mine. I paid 50 cents figuring it was probably well known lapidary material that I could quickly get a locality for....hoping that's true, but I can't find any images on line of anything very similar

It has pronounced foliation and shear textures, which combined with the greenish color suggest a medium-grade metamorphic environment. The blurry reaction zone around the pink domains suggest it was fairly wet.

There are radiating sprays of elongate length-striated greenish crystals with amphibole cleavage visible on the edges, so "hornblende" works. These are encased in a colorless, semitransparent hard (>6<7>6<7) does nothing except reflect the UV.

[Peter Lemkin]

A lot of pink thulite comes from Norway near Lom and some other locations.

[Joseph McAnney]

I have cut this material before and if I remember correctly it is from an island off Washington state and is on private land.

[alfredo]

This has the right combination of species:

https://www.mindat.org/photo-1103542.html

[John Cornish]

Hi Everyone,

From the material I've seen and handled in the past, I would agree with Alfredo that this appears to be from the Tunk Creek area of Washington's Okanogon County. The material has been known for decades and to my knowledge is on private land. Nice lapidary find Peter!

John

[Peter Megaw]

Thanks Folks!

Good to reconnect it with a locality, the pink is really very pretty

Another 50 cent "score" at the sale was this fake fossil from Morocco!!