Detailed information
Dimensions
43 x 46 x 43
mm
Weight
116 g
Locality
Tombstone Tombstone Mining District Cochise County, Arizona, USA
Condition
No recorded repairs
Manganese oxides often get overlooked but form an important part of many mineral deposits, not least those associated with the epithermal volcanically derived mineralization in Arizona and New Mexico. However, their identity is usually simply put down as 'Psilomelane', an older redundant term covering any undifferentiated black botryoidal manganese oxide. In reality, the most common botryoidal manganese oxide in these environments is Cryptomelane - a potassium manganese oxide - and it was from Tombstone that this species was defined, with its name meaning 'hidden' and 'black'. This miniature-sized specimen from Tombstone in the Tombstone Mining District presents a perfect rounded 'bubbly' botryoidal form, the classic shape for this species, but which is rarely so neatly displayed. Ex Paul Matt.
