This specimen shows beautiful parallel-growth tetragonal scapolite crystal form. The scapolite crystals have been mostly replaced by orthoclase, but not entirely so – with strong backlighting, one can see that at least the central crystal at the top retains some of its scapolite core.

The piece is cream-coloured, with some pale blue. Originally it had been hypothesized that these pseudomorphs were coloured by lazurite, however the current thinking, as set out in T. Moore and R.Woodside’s excellent Mineralogical Record article on Sar-e-Sang, in April-May, 2014, is that the colouring may be due to electron exchanges between adjacent ferric and ferrous iron ions, rather than the presence of another mineral such as hauyne or lazurite.

The specimen is in excellent condition. I believe the only irregularites are natural and almost all have obvious recrystalllization, visible with magnification. The piece is a floater and in fact the blue colour is more obvious on the side I consider to be the backside.

Although all Sar-e-Sang scapolite group specimens tested have been shown to be marialite, it is therefore quite likely that this is marialite, this specimen has not been tested, so I have used the group name “scapolite”.