Thomsonite

Item Description

Thomsonite is seemingly not all that common compared to other species from zeolite deposits, such as stilbite, apophyllite, etc. Even when zeolites occur in vast deposits, such as India, it is rare. This is a unique style of dramatic large "snowballs" of thomsonite from India, found about 20 years ago in the early 2000s. It features large balls to 3.5 cm across, is complete and undamaged, and looks good all around 360 degrees. Have not seen this style since then, and they remain some of best of species for India locality of this material. From wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomsonite - "Thomsonite is the name of a series of tectosilicate minerals of the zeolite group. Prior to 1997, thomsonite was recognized as a mineral species, but a reclassification in 1997 by the International Mineralogical Association changed it to a series name, with the mineral species being named thomsonite-Ca and thomsonite-Sr. Thomsonite-Ca, by far the more common of the two, is a hydrous sodium, calcium and aluminium silicate, NaCa2Al5Si5O20·6H2O. Strontium can substitute for the calcium and the appropriate species name depends on the dominant element. The species are visually indistinguishable and the series name thomsonite is used whenever testing has not been performed. Globally, thomsonite is one of the rarer zeolites."