Description

This is a great specimen of all three of these minerals. The afvedsonite is sharp and lustrous, with a fascinating pattern on  the prism faces, where the centre areas are quite bright but the areas closer to the edges are brilliantly lustrous. The zircon crystals are also sharp and lustrous, with the main one (0.6 cm) exhibiting a rather equant habit, with very small prism faces. And the microcline crystals have a selective overgrowth of albite on the prism faces – this is very cool, if not so easy to photograph. In excellent condition. No damage to the arfvedsonite or zircon. It’s hard to say if anything with the feldspars is damage, or whether this is all simply reflective of separation of this piece from its surroundings that occurred late in the crystallization process – almost all surfaces have crystallization patterns, rather than post-formation damage.

Under shortwave ultraviolet light, the zircon fluoresces a brilliant yellow, and the feldspars fluoresce deep-pink to red (as in the second and fifth photos).

A really good combination piece, with nice contrast and sharp crystals.