• A large sputnik aragonite, composed of three lumpy rounded segments. The crystals are short and wide, tightly packed so they cover the mineral like tiles. The piece has saturated red-brown color and a stripe of white crystals up the side.
  • Side-view of the piece, showing three rounded segments across the piece. It has well-formed pseudo-hexagonal crystals. There is good balance and pattern of the red and white crystals on this side.
  • A side-view of the piece, showing well-formed even pseudo-hexagonal crystals, with a good color and pattern balance of white and red crystals
  • Another angle of the piece, showing the piece is three segments across but the one on left is divided into two rounded forms. There is a patch of broken crystals at each end of the specimen.
  • Looking down an end of the piece, showing one of the two spherical forms on that end is covered in broken red-brown crystals.
  • Detail of patch broken crystals on one side of the piece, some red and some white
  • Detail of the side of the piece, showing well-formed even pseudo-hexagonal crystals with good depth of color and translucency. Some crystals on the border between the red and white are bicolor.
  • Detail of the same side as the previous image, with lighting at a different angle showing the good translucency of the crystals. Some rings of color zoning are visible inside crystals
  • The piece on a mineral shelf, showing it is relatively vibrant red-brown with good luster.
  • Scale image of the piece on a measuring mat, measuring a bit over four by two inches.
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Bicolor sputnik aragonite, large

Bicolor sputnik aragonite, large

$25.00 USD
$25.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.

Locale: Morocco

Approx dimensions: 4 x 2"

Approx weight: 382g

 

This variety of aragonite clusters earns its trade name from the resemblance to the Sputnik satellite, with crystals protruding out in all directions. The bicolor variety grows crystals that are red-brown and a grayish-white color. This lumpy-ass piece looks a bit phallic from the wrong angle (I deleted a few photos 😅), composed of multiple spherical lumps with a pair at the base and two stacked above. There are a few patches of broken crystals on the surface, but overall the piece has well-formed even crystal growth with good translucency. Studied closely, some color zoning is visible inside the red crystals.

Sputnik aragonite grows clusters of pseudo-hexagonal crystals radiating out from a central point. 'Pseudo-hexagonal' means the crystals that appear hexagonal are actually formed through crystal twinning. Multiple crystals have grown in rotational symmetry like the arms of a snowflake (as opposed to the mirrored symmetry of a parallel growth twin). This pseudo-hexagonal crystal habit is common in aragonite, and produces long barrel-shaped hexagonal crystals.

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