Mineral Mondays!

(Sorry for the late post today. I've been a bit under the weather. :( )


Without further ado I give you....

Fluorite:

Fluorite is one of my favorites! The color tonations and the way it catches the light make it beautiful to behold and work with. I design and fabricate jewelry and Fluorite is a stone I find myself coming back to again and again.

Formula:	CaF 2
System:	Isometric	Colour:	Purple, lilac, ...
Lustre:	Vitreous, Dull	Hardness:	4
Member of:	Fluorite Group
Name:	From the Latin, fluere = "to flow" (for its use as a flux in the melting of metal ores). The term fluorescence is derived from fluorite, which will often markedly exhibit this effect. The element fluorine also derives its name from fluorite, a major source for the element.

Fluorite Group: Fluorite is found as a common gangue mineral in hydrothermal veins, especially those containing lead and zinc minerals. It is also found in some greisens, granites, pegmatites and high-temperature veins, and as a component of some marbles and other metamorphic rocks.

Kisses,

K

(Images and info via Mindat, Cochise, and windows2universe)