Sulfur & Calcite in drill core (Art Smith Coll.)

Item Description

An unusually aesthetic and RARE combination vug from a section of 5 inch in diameter rotary drill core from this well-known salt dome in the Texas Gulf Coast near Houston. The dramatic sculptural vug hosts undamaged sharp gem canary-yellow sulfur crystals to about 2.0 cm and is lined with gem colorless, dogtooth calcite crystals and pink granular calcite. Boling Dome is a shallow salt dome (about 500 feet below the surface) that has produced oil, gas, sulfur, salt and other minerals. Oil production began in 1925 and sulfur production began in 1929. See: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/boling-dome. Crystallized sulfur is RARE from the dome as the sulfur was liquified with superheated steam and water and pumped out with compressed air. Exotic pink and yellow calcite fluorescence! Ex Art Smith Collection. Art was well-known Texas mineral and field collector and author. He passed away in 2009. This is easily the finest example of crystallized sulfur and calcite in a drill core we have seen from this locale, in terms of fine-ness of quality of the crystals. Art's collection was legendary in texas for his local minerals.. Valued $1000-1500