Stilbite from Wagholi, Wagholi Quarries, Maharashtra, India - image 1

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Stilbite from Wagholi, Wagholi Quarries, Maharashtra, India

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The top of matrix is covered with lustrous colorless crystals of stilbite measuring to 1.3 cm in length. Scattered richly throughout are small groupings of blue cavansite crystals, the largest measuring to 0.4 cm in size. This is in good condition.The Wagholi Quarries near Pune, Maharashtra, India, are set within the volcanic basalt flows of the Deccan Traps, where hydrothermal fluid activity inside rock cavities and breccias favored the growth of secondary minerals. Although active commercial basalt quarrying was driven by construction needs, workers discovered rich deposits of brilliant, electric-blue cavansite in the mid-1970s and 1980s. Wagholi quickly gained international fame among mineral collectors and museums for producing the finest known prismatic cavansite crystals, often set against contrasting white stilbite matrices. Mineral collecting at the site has become legendary, though active commercial mining in the primary cavansite-bearing zones has mostly ceased today.