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8 January 2011
Radiating crystals of wavellite
My once and future Honors student Robin R. brought back some sweet wavellite [Al3(PO4)2(OH,F)3•5(H2O)] samples from her holiday travels*. Check out these beautiful radiating crystals! A penny will serve as your sense of scale. The wavellite is a “crust” on top of a layered rock that appears to be a quartzite. (The layering in the quartzite is cross-cut by the wavellite layer.) It looks like the host rock fractured, then …