Thomsonite

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From the archives of the Min. Record (Oct. 2005): "In early September a well-digging in India produced a significant mineral find as well-diggings in India often have done and a handful of striking-looking miniature to large-cabinet specimens for Rob Lavinsky to add to his site. Three Indian dealers also bought up some of these intriguing specimens of thomsonite, a zeolite species heretofore almost unknown from the basalts of the Deccan Plateau (in the Indian Zeolites Special Issue, Berthold Ottens writes that thomsonite "is one of the rarest zeolites of the region not to be found among dealers' offerings"). Thomsonite, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India, 4.5 x 6.8 x 11.5 cm; Rob Lavinsky photo This newly found thomsonite occurs as perfect spheres, to 7 cm in diameter, composed of radiating acicular crystals, resting directly on brownish gray basalt matrix. The spheres are opaque and creamy white to very pale orange, with the surface texture of fine-grained sandpaper. Specimens consist of isolated spheres or intergrown, wavy-surfaced groups of spheres resting lightly on matrix, or grapelike clusters free of matrix. This material was originally called pectolite, mesolite, scolecite, or a mixture of these (since indeed you would think of any of them before you would think of thomsonite), but testing has settled the question: it is in fact thomsonite. The well-digging site from which the specimens came and more perhaps will come is said to lie in a forest near Aurangabad, Maharashtra." You should have seen dealers rush to snap these up when the buzz got around at the show where they appeared that they had indeed been identified as superb specimens of rare thomsonite!