Sulfur (good sized crystal)

Item Description

Sulfur, based solely on its color, is one of the most easily recognizable species in the mineral world. The intense yellow hue is about as vivid as it gets, and is unmistakable. The El Desierto Mine located in the big dry western desert of Bolivia, is one of the greatest localities for Sulfur crystals in the world. While they are not the same habit/style as the old classics from Sicily, they still occur in notably large bright yellow single crystals and clusters, rarely on matrix. These are some of most distinctive Sulfur crystals ever found. This specimen is a rather good sized, bright "canary" yellow, lustrous, gemmy/translucent crystal of Sulfur with pronounced "hoppered" or skeletal faces, free of matrix. Please note that the termination is dinged on this one, so it's not completely undamaged. The hollow growth is due to the fact that these crystals grow so rapidly that they cannot "fill in" all the way while they're forming. These pieces are beloved by collectors for their size and wonderful morphology. It should be noted that Sulfur is notorious for turning sulfide minerals black upon exposure, so keep your Pyrites, Galenas, Chalcopyrites, etc. away from native Sulfur in order to maintain their metallic beauty. For reference, this species should be spelled S-U-L-F-U-R (not sulphur) as both the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry along with the British Royal Society of Chemistry adopted this spelling in the 1990s (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur#Spelling_and_etymology). Wikipedia also states that, "Sulfur is derived from the Latin word sulpur, which was Hellenized to sulphur in the erroneous belief that the Latin word came from Greek."