Carpathite (rare hydrocarbon) on Quartz (David Burgess Coll.)

Item Description

Carpathite is a rare organic hydrocarbon. The finest examples of the species come from this extinct mercury mine, discovered prior to 1870 and worked intermittently until about 1942 (MINDAT). Bright shimmering canary-yellow lathes and needles, to 1.1 cm, are exposed in the broken faces of the sculptural cluster of oxide-tinted statlactitic drusy quartz. Bright yellowish-white fluorescence. A highly representative and showy example of the rare species from the David Burgess Collection, for whom Burgessite is named.