Wavellite (lovely blue color)

Item Description

A really attractive and showy specimen of velvety, greenish-blue Wavellite botryoids from the famous Dug Hill locality in Arkansas. The largest complete "ball" measures 1.0 cm across, which is pretty good for the locality Classic material, and certainly some of the most beloved Wavellite in the world for color. Typically, the spheres from this locality are broken / contacted because of the nature of the mining process and how the pieces formed. This piece has many complete undamaged spheres that were protected by forming inside the host rock matrix. If you look at the close up photos, you can see that each "ball" is very well-crystallized! It should be noted that the color on this piece is more BLUE than most specimens I've seen from the areas, as they tend to be more on the green side and the blue hue is rare in my experience. Reference: Mineralogical Record (Vol. 4, No. 6, Pg. 294 - a couple paragraphs talking about a rejuvenation at Dug Hill in "What's New in Minerals" back in 1973 where they mention that the color is caused by Vanadium). Valued at $900 in the inventory.