Andalusite (crystallized)

Item Description

Andalusite is found in a lot of localities, but considering that very little of it is well-crystallized, you just don't see it in many collections. Several years ago there was a discovery in Jenipapo, Brazil which produced some very fine crystallized examples of the species. This miniature specimen features a handful of sharp, prismatic, well-formed, orthorhombic crystals of rich pinkish-brown colored Andalusite measuring up to 4.3 cm long on Quartz matrix. The crystals show very fine sharp prism faces, but the terminations are not complete. These crystals might appear opaque, but if you backlight them, you'll see that they actually have a bit of green internal gemminess! Also, one of the properties of Andalusite is that it's slightly pleochroic, so you can see a tiny bit of a color change when it's rotated in the light.