Description
Polished Gemstone Sphere of ARFVEDSONITE.
93mm – #A6
1286grams
$194
Includes Stand!
Location: Kola Peninsula, Russia
Performs best under light with a magnificent display of internal fibers that flash blue, green, gold depending on the piece.
Please note:
Flashes can be a wide range of colors blue, grey, gold, green, even reddish. THIS IS NOT ASTROPHYLLITE but is tagged thus because of misinformed consumers.
Arfvedsonite
Inosilicates
Amphiboles
Formula
(repeating unit) [Na][Na2][(Fe2+)4Fe3+][(OH)2’Si8O22]
Pleochroism Strong: Blue-greens, yellow-browns, gray-violets
Arfvedsonite is a sodium amphibole mineral with composition: [Na][Na2][(Fe2+)4Fe3+][(OH)2’Si8O22]. It crystallizes in the monoclinic prismatic crystal system and typically occurs as greenish black to bluish grey fibrous to radiating or stellate prisms.
It is a rather rare mineral occurring in nepheline syenite intrusions and agpaitic (peralkaline) pegmatites and granites as the Golden Horn batholith in Okanogan County, Washington (type locality for zektzerite). Occurrences include Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada; the Ilímaussaq complex in Southern Greenland; and in pegmatites of the Kola Peninsula, Russia. Its mineral association includes nepheline, albite, aegirine, riebeckite, katophorite, and quartz.
Arfvedsonite was discovered in 1823 and named for the Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson (1792-1841).
