Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Giant selenite crystals

Some of you may have seen these photos....they have been circulating via e-mail over the last few weeks.

Pretty amazing....probably the largest selenite (CaSO4·2H2O) crystals found, i'd imagine. Miners discovered them in Naica Mine, Chihuahua, Mexico. Note people for scale in photos.




3 comments:

C W Magee said...

Isn't Selenite SrSO4?

BrianR said...

hmmm....all the online databases I checked simply say it is a variety of gypsum, which is the formula I listed above...Mindat.org says strontium sulfate is called 'celestine'

C W Magee said...

I stand corrected. See what happens you you avoid evaporites for 13 years?