Fluorite

Object/Artifact

-

Crater Rock Museum

Fluorite

Fluorite

Name/Title

Fluorite

Entry/Object ID

2014.1.126

Description

Chemical Composition: CaF2 Crystal System: Cubic or Isometric S Description: Common Name: Fluorite Group Name: Halides Chemistry: CaF2 Location: Unknown Description: A block of pale green crystal with horizontal layers of crystal and a white mineral at top and bottom. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Color is extremely variable and many times can be an intense purple, blue, green or yellow; also colorless, reddish orange, pink, white and brown. A single crystal can be multi-colored. Luster is vitreous. Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent. Crystal System: Isometric; 4/m bar 3 2/m Crystal Habits include the typical cube and to a lesser extent, the octahedron as well as combinations of these two and other rarer isometric habits. Always with equant crystals; less common are crusts and botryoidal forms. Twinning also produces penetration twins that look like two cubes grown together. Cleavage is perfect in 4 directions forming octahedrons. Fracture is irregular and brittle. Hardness is 4 Specific Gravity is 3.1+ (average) Streak is white. Other Characteristics: Often fluorescent blue or more rarely green, white, red or violet and may be thermoluminescent, phosphorescent and triboluminescent. Associated Minerals are many and include calcite, quartz, willemite, barite, witherite, apatite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, pyrite and other sulfides. Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, color zoning, hardness (harder than calcite, but softer than quartz or apatite), fluorescence and especially the octahedral cleavage. Fracture: Irregular/brittle Hardness: 4 Fluorite Luster: Vitreous Occurrence: Notable Occurrences include in addition to those mentioned above Cumberland, England; Spain; China; Brazil; Morocco; Bancroft, Ontario, Canada; Naica, Chihuahua, Mexico; Germany; Elmwood, Tennessee; Rosiclare, Illinois; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Pugh Quarry and Wood County, Ohio; Nancy Hanks Mine, Colorado and many other USA localities as well as many other localities from around the world. Fluorite not only is attractive in its own right but is often associated with other attractive minerals. Fluorite crystals will frequently accompany specimens of silver gray galena, brassy yellow pyrite, chalcopyrite or marcasite, golden barite, black sparkling sphalerite, intricately crystallized calcite and crystal clear quartz, even amethyst Rock Type: Sedimentary Specific Gravity: 3.1+ Streak: white Variety: Fluorite is a mineral with a veritable bouquet of brilliant colors. Fluorite is well known and prized for its glassy luster and rich variety of colors. The range of common colors for fluorite starting from the hallmark color purple, then blue, green, yellow, colorless, brown, pink, black and reddish orange is amazing and is only rivaled in color range by quartz. Intermediate pastels between the previously mentioned colors are also possible. It is easy to see why fluorite earns the reputation as "The Most Colorful Mineral in the World". Fluorite has other qualities besides its great color assortments that make it a popular mineral. It has several different crystal habits that always produce well formed, good, clean crystals. The cube is by far the most recognized habit of fluorite followed by the octahedron which is believed to form at higher temperatures than the cube. Although the cleavage of fluorite can produce an octahedral shape and these cleaved octahedrons are popular in rock shops the world over, the natural (e.g. uncleaved) octahedrons are harder to find. A rarer habit variety is the twelve sided dodecahedron however it is never seen by itself and usually modifies the cubic crystals by replacing the edges of the cube with one flat face of a dodecahedron. The tetrahexahedron is a twenty four sided habit that is also seen modifying the cubic habit. But instead of one face replacing each cubic edge, two faces modify the cube's edges. Occasionally combinations of a cube, dodecahedron and tetrahexahedron are seen producing an overall cubic crystal with no less that three minor parallel faces replacing each cubic edge. A fifth form is the hexoctahedron which modifies the cube by placing six very minor faces at each corner of the cube. Twinning is also common in fluorite and symmetrical penetration twins, especially from Cumberland England are much sought after by collectors.

Collection

RAGM Mineral Collection

Acquisition

Accession

2014.1

Source or Donor

Crater Rock Museum (unknown donors)

Acquisition Method

Gift

Dimensions

Width

3-1/4 in

Depth

4 in

Length

5-1/4 in

Dimension Notes

Dimension taken at widest points

Location

Location

Shelf

CS-D-5

Room

Curation Storage

Building

Crater Rock Museum

Date

January 24, 2024

Location

Wall

North

Building

Storage (old gift shop upstairs)

Category

Permanent

Moved By

Rawley Wyatt

Date

September 4, 2014

Location

Cabinet

J-1 rear

Wall

North

Building

Storage (old gift shop upstairs)

Category

Permanent