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“Chocolate” Laumontite – January 2022

I’ve posted new specimens from the Chocolate Laumontite Pocket (click here).

The laumontites from this find at Long Beach are from a single pocket found in 2020 by Terry Collett, who whimsically named them the “Chocolate Laumontites”. We are not aware of any other laumontite with this colouring, from Nova Scotia or elsewhere. The clusters from the Chocolate Laumontite Pocket are separate clumps of grouped crystals, most often with little or no point of contact. Long Beach has been a sparse mineral locality, generally – it is an uncommon locality for fine mineral specimens of any species. This was a cool and unique find.

Laumontite is a relatively common zeolite group mineral (that can occur in excellent specimens!) but because it usually dehydrates relatively quickly in air (and can then turn to powder), it is not so commonly preserved and encountered in mineral collections.

These laumontite specimens have been stabilized. After experimentation with various methods and materials, it has been found that a technique using a mixture including water-soluble glue is the most effective, with no impact on the visual appearance of the specimens (colour or lustre). Nova Scotia laumontite specimens stabilized using this method have proven stable over longer than 20 years, with no indication that such stability will change (in mineral cabinets, at approximate normal indoor humidity levels – ranging from approx. 25-75%). Specimens in my own collection are as good as the day they were stabilized.

(Please note: these “chocolate laumontite” specimens are fragile because they are interlocking clusters of crystals with lots of spaces for air – they should not be rinsed in water (or any liquid…) – the clusters will fall apart from the inside.)

Here are some beautiful examples of from the Chocolate Laumontite Pocket: