FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Julien]

The last special issue of Le Règne Minéral magazin is dedicated to french zeolites with 132 pages. We have structured this 2011 special issue of Le Règne Minéral to be a guide to both new information and to classical references to the historical, geographical, geological and, of course, mineralogical aspects.
France is home to the type localities for 5 zeolites: Laumontite (Haüy, 1801), Offretite (Gonnard, 1890), Gonnardite (Lacroix, 1896), Mazzite-Mg (Galli et al., 1974) and Direnzoite (Galli et al., 2008). We might add that, in the 19th century, probably the finest specimens of “Mésotype” – an old name for Natrolite – came from France, from the little quarry at puy de Marman in the Auvergne region. Indeed, you will find that several French localities are of international importance. For example, Espalion quarry in the Aveyron department where world-class Gismondine crystals have been found, or Rioumaou quarry in the Hautes Pyrénées which has furnished some of the largest Brewsterite-Sr crystals known. We also debate the type locality for Stilbite, which may well be French too. Zeolites do indeed occupy an important place in French mineralogy.
w w w . minerauxetfossiles . c o m/index.php?page=003