4.6" Fluorescent, Red-Orange Botryoidal Aragonite Formation - Peru

Fluorescent, Red-Orange Botryoidal Aragonite Formation - Peru #225434

This is a beautiful formation of red-orange cave aragonite (aka cave calcite), collected from the Pachacayo Mine in Junín, Peru. When viewing the mineral under short and long wave UV, this specimen fluoresces a faint, white-yellow color, with the strongest fluorescence under short-wave UV. Following extended UV exposure, the aragonite displays phosphorescent properties that remain for a short time.

Comes with an acrylic display stand to assist with presentation.

Aragonite is one of two common calcium carbonate (CaCO3) minerals: the other is calcite, of which aragonite forms as a pseudomorph. Its crystal lattice differs from calcite, resulting in a different crystal shape. It displays a translucent to white color when pure, and when impure can vary between yellow, green, pink, blue and brown. It typically forms in low-temperature hydrothermal veins, in hot springs, and as precipitates from chemicals in sedimentary rock. It can also form under biological processes: aragonite forms naturally in most mollusk shells, and as the calcareous endoskeleton most corals.

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