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YOOPERLITE FOR SALE
What Is Yooperlite?
Yooperlite is the colloquial name for sodalite-syenite. This mineral looks like many igneous rocks, but when exposed to UV light, it will fluoresce a range of bright colors, from orange to red and pink. In the presence of long-wave UV light, the Yooperlite will glow red-orange or pink, and when placed under short-wave UV light, the sodalite glows orange or yellow-orange.
A polished sphere of yooperlite showing it under both natural light and under short-wave UV light.
How Were Yooperlites Discovered?
Yooperlite is the name given to this mineral after it was brought to the world's attention by avid beach-combing agate collector, Erik Rintamaki, in 2018. "Yooper" is a nickname for people of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, or the U.P., and "lite" refers to the sodalite in the mineral. Erik was searching for agates by the shore of Lake Superior using UV lights at night when he came across the Yooperlite radiating fluorescence.
Where Are Yooperlites Found?
Yooperlites are primarily found along the shores of Michigan's beaches, specifically along Lake Michigan and in the Upper Peninusula. While mainly collected in Michigan, some specimens have been collected in Minnesota and near the other Great Lakes. Geologists believe that yooperlite formed in the Canadaian Shield and, over millions of years of glacial movement, deposited in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
What Makes Yooperlites Glow?
The brilliant glow of a yooperlite is a reaction of the fluorescent sodalite to UV light. The sodalite in the yooperlite absorbs electromagnetic radiation at the UV light wavelength and re-emits it in a longer wavelength, which appears as yellow, orange, red, or pink.
Are Yooperlites Rare?
Yooperlites are not exactly rare, so much as they are only mainly collected in a very specific part of Michigan. The main aspect of yooperlite's rarity stems from its position as the only known appearance of fluorescent sodalite in Michigan, which was previously undiscovered. Sodalite is a fairly common mineral, but it is uncommon to be seen in this way.
How Do Yooperlites Form?
Yooperlites (like other igneous rocks) form when molten rock crystalizes and solidifies. In the case of yooperlite, these super-hot minerals are syenite and the fluorescent feldspathoid sodalite. Sodalite is a very silica-poor mineral that forms around other silica-poor minerals, especially where no quartz is found. After the molten rock has fully cooled, sodalite-syenite is left behind. Millions of years later and after glacial dispersal and erosion, the small rounded stones litter the beaches of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.