Pachnolite with THOMSENOLITE

$8,500.00

$40.00 shipping
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Tucson, Arizona, USA

7,543 for sale·132 sold

This larger, cabinet-sized display specimen is something most National Museums would like to have in their collection. To the untrained eye it might look like a piece of white Quartz with a rusty coating of iron oxides, but it is infinitely rarer. This is an incredibly rare larger specimen of perfectly crystallized Pachnolite and Thomsenolite from the Type Locality of both species - Ivigtut Cryolite Deposit, Greenland. Both species are polymorphs of hydrated sodium calcium aluminofluoride. Remarkably, as polymorphs, they are both also monoclinic in form and do on occasion get mis-identified, but this magnificent specimen allows the comparison of both crystal forms. If you study the specimen carefully you will see that the main body of the specimen is white to colourless Thomsenolite forming blocky, but tapering crystals with square-section terminations. The largest of these reach 1 cm across. Upon these, and often with a later rusty orange coating are tapering pointed prismatic crystals which are Pachnolite. These reach 4 mm in length and completely line a 4 x 1.5 cm cavity. There are very few richer specimens of these two important Type Species in private hands and even less for sale. It is from the superb systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).