Detailed information
Species
Prosopite, Thomsenolite
Dimensions
58 x 78 x 55
mm
Weight
226 g
Locality
Ivigtut Cryolite Deposit Ivittuut (Ivigtut), Arsuk Fjord Sermersooq, Greenland
Condition
No recorded repairs
The Ivigtut Cryolite Deposit in Greenland is a fascinating and unique geological occurrence but the days of mining are long gone and the dumps and even the waste rock used to create the pier have long since been reprocessed, leaving behind no opportunity for new specimens to become available. Home to 17 new species, many of these are uniquely well-crystallized at Ivigtut. This small cabinet-sized specimen is a fairly pure mass of fine-grained white Thomsenolite (one of the Type Species) with occasional small cavities containing crystals. The main upper surface of the specimen is much more open textured and covered in microcrystals stained pale orange due to iron oxides. These microcrystals take the dominant form of very rich spherical aggregates of Prosopite, but underlying these, and occasionally poking through, are small acicular to slightly wider tapering pointed Thomsenolite crystals. This undoubted older specimen comes from the amazing systematic collection assembled by the brothers Martin and Michael Günther (1951-2007 & 1956-2021).