Natrolite (RARE locality specimen)

Item Description

Natrolite is a uncommon zeolite species, found in various environments around the world. You see crystals coming from basalt flows in places like India or New Jersey, but they are also found in metamorphic deposits like the European Alps, or the high Alpine-type clefts of the Shigar Valley of Pakistan. This particular specimen is from a much more obscure locality, a town called Mwanga in northeastern Tanzania at the foot of the north Pare Mountains, right at the border with Kenya. I've only seen a handful of these pieces over the years, and this one is arguably the THICKETS single crystal that we've had to offer. It's a stout, well-formed, sharp, single prism with a textbook pyramidal tetragonal termination. When it's backlit, the crystal shows decent translucency, with a bright white hue. The striated, almost fibrous nature of the crystal reminds one of Ulexite. You rarely seen good single crystals of Natrolite in this size / thickness from any locality, let alone TANZANIA! For the size, quality and rare locality, we had this piece priced in our inventory at $2,400.