Natrolite (rare green color) (ex Brian Kosnar Collection)

Item Description

The Deccan Trap in Maharashtra, India is one of the greatest mineral producing areas in the world. It has literally yielded countless tons of superb quality crystallized minerals (mostly zeolites, but other superb minerals like Cavansite and Apophyllite are also found) over the last few decades. The quantity of specimens has made some collectors jaded, as if often the case when there is a plethora of a certain material on the market, but make no mistake, the majority of the minerals found in this area are the FINEST crystallized examples of their respective species extant. This piece dates back to the early 1990s, and is a rarely seen GREEN Natrolite from the Bombay Quarry. Typically Natrolite is white or colorless, so to find crystals with this alluring green hue is a big deal. This piece comprises dozens of excellent quality, thin prismatic tetragonal crystals of Natrolite measuring up to 3.8 cm have formed a beautiful radial "spray", off matrix. You can see the majority of the crystals are white, and the green is concentrated on the terminations. My best guess is that the green is due to minor vanadium content, which is the same chromophore that causes the green hue in the Apophyllite crystals from India. I have only seen ONE other piece of this material (see photo here https://www.mindat.org/photo-1145771.html ), and I like to keep up with new finds from India, and I have yet to see another pocket of these green Natrolites, so if you're a fan of zeolites or minerals from India, don't pass this one up.