Detailed information
Dimensions
74 x 64 x 38
mm
Weight
98 g
Locality
Mont Saint-Hilaire La Vallée-du-Richelieu RCM Montérégie, Québec, Canada
Condition
No recorded repairs
Labelled Melilite, this superbly crystallised specimen is from San Rocco in the Viterbo Province of Lazio, Italy. Melilite is no longer regarded as a specific mineral, the name being applied to species of uncertain composition in the Melilite Group. The large, semi-transparent to translucent, cubic, tan crystals look like 'kermanite, but this is an educated suggestion only. Reverting to the general name, the Melilite crystals measure up to 7 mm on edge and richly line a wide shallow vug in a dark green granular volcanic matrix, of likely Olivine. Although the mineral locality is given as San Rocco, this is a nearby abandoned small church and the mineral locality itself is a small depression on the rim of the Vico caldera, west of the San Rocco.
