PARASYMPLESITE
Specimen prs-1

Dims: 1.25x1.00x0.93" (3.16x2.54x2.37cm)

Wt: 0.39oz (11.1g)

Jachymov, Czech Republic

This is a small mineral specimen rich in rare species, although none of them are wonderful examples. Overall, the specimen has a slightly greenish-gray cast, and this is due to a crust of parasymplesite. At first, I thought that this crust was non-crystalline, but a loupe reveals that it is fuzzy, due to nearly microscopic acicular crystals of green-gray parasymplesite, which coat most of the surfaces that were naturally open in the specimen (most noteably an obvious crevice at one end of the specimen). Perhaps more noticable is a brown patch, which the loupe reveals as a fuzzy crust of reddish-brown kottigite crystals. On top of the kottigite are numerous well-crystallized blue-gray puffballs of symplesite. The symplesite crystals are large enough to be examined with a loupe, and many of them display their radial growth pattern. Also, many of them transition to greenish parasymplesite, with a yellowish intermediate mineral.