FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[am mizunaka]

.High Resolution Version: https://www.mindat.org/xpic.php?fname=0039032001384680826.jpg

[Bob Harman]

About 15 years ago, while field collecting at one of the road cuts in Monroe County Indiana, several fellow collectors also showed up to collect. I did not know them so we talked awhile and as they were from Upstate NY and I was raised in NYC, we rapidly became friends. Anyway, the next time I visited family, I made it a point to go the North way and visit with them in St Lawrence County NY. We collected tremolite and a variety hexagonite. My 2 best self collected examples are what you see here.

As I understand it, these are silicates in the amphibole group of minerals; metamorphosed calcites, dolomites and quartz. The fibrous forms are types of asbestos. Long term chronic inhalation of the proper size and type of the asbestos fibers is strongly associated with asbestosis, lung cancer, and cancer of the lining of the lungs and/or stomach, mesothelioma. Long term cigarette smoking further enhances the risk of getting one of these diseases.

[Pierre Joubert]

[Jesse Fisher]

A couple fluorites from two of the better-known quarries working the Lockport Group dolomite in western New York. If anyone is interested, there is a good article on the geology, minerals, and history of these locations in the journal Rocks & Minerals:

Bailey, D.G., M. Hawkins, and C. Hiler, 2009, Minerals of the Silurian Lockport Group, Central and Western New York State. Rocks & Minerals 84:326-343.

[Tobi]

Two beautiful specimens, Jesse. I especially like the second one with the pale blue cube on matrix, a perfect miniature!

[Tobi]

Nothing new here for a while: