GEO 139
Tincalconite
Class: Mineral
Location: Chihuahua, Mexico
Not all minerals have to be pretty crystals, as demonstrated with this nesoborate. I was able to acquire two of these giant chunks of what appears to be a lumpy white mass of mineral. What it lacks in beauty it makes up with being a more odd mineral than not. It's a white powdery mineral that grows in this sort of crystal pattern rather than the fine quartz structures everyone is most familiar with.
Mined out of Chihuahua, Mexico this mineral specimen is very similar to borax, a common cleaning detergent. In fact tincalconite is normally made by simply dehydrating borax and sodium borates, but it's also found naturally. It is a 2 on Moh's scale of hardness and has a fairly small specific gravity of 1.88. While this particular specimen isn't that great of quality, they have a hexagonal crystal structure and form some pretty nice looking specimens. Check out this page for more scientific data and other details of tincalconite.
No comments:
Post a Comment