Halite (GEM quality!)

Item Description

A rarely seen GEM quality specimen of Halite from the famous Carlsbad Potash District (Dana locality), featuring a beautiful, sharp, lutrous, very gemmy, beautiful blue and colorless cube of Halite. Typically, the Halite crystals from this locality are off matrix, and this one is a good overall representation of this well known contemporary material (a piece was even featured on the cover of the Mineralogical Record a couple years ago). Considering this is essentially crystallized table salt, it's a great opportunity to pick up a colorful and eye-catching display piece of a species that is somewhat elusive in the mineral world. The color is really what's important here, and I'm told that the color are caused by the natural radiation effect of the decay of the potassium-40 isotope from the surrounding Sylvite ore in the mine.