FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[José Miguel]

My contribution to the Calcite forms.

[Carles Curto]

[Tobi]

Hi Elise,

an interesting thread! Calcite is one of the most fascinating minerals and i would say it is among my all-time favourites, together with fluorite, tourmaline, garnet, beryl and quartz. Here are some impressions of calcite crystals from my collection.

Cheers!

[Jordi Fabre]

One more, this time from Spain.

BTW, thanks to Tracy Kimmel for the help in the translation-revision of the Carles Curto text about the "Calcite shell"!

Jordi

[Tracy]

My pleasure. :-)

- Tracy

[Tracy]

By the way, the calcites appearing in this thread are really incredible. I have a weird one of my own to offer but it's really hard to photograph...and not all that attractive...just WEIRD, and with a neat history. I'll keep trying.

- Tracy

[Gerhard Niklasch]

While these buttons may not be all that unusual, they've always struck me as Calcite trying hard (and failing) to pretend to be something else:
``When we grow up, we want to be ....Uvites!''
(Hm, if they were to turn their prisms through 30°, that would be a start...)
Canteras de mármol, Macael, Almería. Andalucía, Spain;
28x24x17mm overall size, acquired in September 2009, collection id 09ESCm001.

[jamesb]

I like it ! Esp #3.

[Jordi Fabre]

This one from Morocco

[Tobi]

Gerhard, i would like to see more of these stereoscopic pictures. Can you post some more (only if it doesn't trouble you)?

Danke :-)

[Elise]

[Antonio Alcaide]

If you post one hexagonal shape calcite, I cannot stay still. :-)

One more, this time from the interesting chinese locality: Fozichong.

I did not know this type of calcites from Morocco. I think they can also be found in:

Charcas, Mexico.
Madrid, Spain.
St Andreasberg, St Andreasberg District, Harz Mts, Lower Saxony, Germany.

The classic prismatic examples from that last locality are amazing. I regret not having one of them to post it. Does anybody have?

Cheers

[Jordi Fabre]

From China too...

[Elise]

Since I can't compete with the photographic skills exhibited in this calcite thread, I'll have to try for humor: with a Norwegian moose for scale, here is the prism pair which started the thread as seen end on, showing the symmetry. Everyone who takes a look at this thinks it is beryl at first as they turn it over in their hand - they are quite surprised to find it is calcite. It is sitting next to my prize cleavage rhomb of "Iceland spar" from Helgustadir.

Cheers!
Elise

[Antonio Alcaide]

Ummm!!! Hexagonal calcites. My favourites!! Please, Elise, where do they come from?

Cheers

[Michael Shaw]

Here's my contribution to this thread. The Annabel Lee Mine produced these calcites with unusual sceptered terminations around the mid 1980s. 5 x 6.5 cm.

The second image shows a calcite from the Fletcher Mine in the Viburnum Trend. The calcite has a reddish phantom presumably from included hematite. 6.5 cm.

[Carles Millan]

Calcite

Hexagonal tabular colorless translucent crystals of calcite to 12 mm in size forming a 55 mm x 32 mm x 18 mm cluster. Undamaged. Ex Gene Tribbey collection.

Brevik, Porsgrunn, Telemark, Norway.

[Paul Bordovsky]

Here is a specimen that I posted on the "faden" calcite thread, which is a misnomer.

[Paul Bordovsky]

Champagne colored calcite crystals sitting on matrix. There are ten crystals that are well defined and gemmy. Specimen size is 170 x 110mm. The largest crystal is 47 x 60 mm.

Laogaoshan deposit, Liujiang Co., Liuzhou Prefecture, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China

[am mizunaka]

Here's my calcite pick.