• An oval sputnik aragonite covered with short small crystals, flattened pseudo-hexagonal shapes like diamonds. The piece is mostly red-brown with patches of white crystals at the top and bottom. There is a patch of white opaque mineral on the left side.
  • Detail of the surface of one end of the piece, mostly covered in white crystals with some red -brown and bicolor crystals. The piece has good translucency down into the crystals.
  • Detail of the another end of the piece, with a patch of crystals with broken ends. There is also a partial cluster of crystals with good radiating growth out from the white patch in the bottom left.
  • Detail view of a side of the piece, with tightly-packed white pseudo-hexagonal crystals with good translucency
  • Detail view of a patch of small white and red crystals that have been broken, surrounded by larger crystals with good translucency.
  • Detail of a side of the piece, with a patch of small rough crystals with broken ends. This side is mostly white crystals.
  • View of the piece on a mineral shelf, showing it has good color and luster relative to other pieces.
  • Scale image of the piece on a measuring mat, measuring about two and a half by almost two inches
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Bicolor sputnik aragonite, medium

Bicolor sputnik aragonite, medium

$18.00 USD
$18.00 USD
Sale Sold out
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Locale: Morocco

Approx dimensions: 2.5 x 1.5"

Approx weight: 230g

 

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 piece has one side with a lot of red-brown, but then has a lot of white crystals around its sides. The aragonite crystals are well formed, good-sized, and have good translucency.

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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