Apatito
Apatito is a mineral with formula Ca₅(PO₄)₃(F,Cl,OH), in the Fosfatos group. This specimen comes from Cerro del Mercado, Victoria de Durango, Cerro de los Remedios, Durango, México and joined the Terrium collection in 2015.
Description
Very thick prismatic apatite crystal with a hexagonal cross-section and twelve longitudinal faces. Intense canary yellow color and good transparency. Six-faced pyramidal termination with slight wear at the apex. The highly transparent interior shows internal fractures and small inclusions.
About Apatito
Durango apatite is used as a calibration standard in laboratories around the world. Because these crystals are relatively large, homogeneous, and contain small amounts of uranium and thorium, geologists use them as reference material for dating rocks through techniques such as fission track dating and U-Th/He dating. When a laboratory needs to check that its instruments are measuring rock ages correctly, it first runs a test on a fragment of Durango apatite, whose age is fixed at around 31.4 million years. If you visit a geochronology laboratory in the United States, Australia, Japan or Switzerland, there is a good chance they will have a small vial of its yellow fragments in a drawer.
About the locality
Cerro del Mercado (Durango): one of the world's classics for igneous apatite. A large volcanic–subvolcanic body historically exploited as an iron mine. Prismatic apatite crystals, often of an intense yellow color and with highly regular geometry, develop within the cavities and fractures of the basalt. The locality is particularly prized for the sharpness of its crystal habits and for producing some of the most aesthetic Mexican apatite crystals.
Technical data
- Catalogue No.
- 0283
- Composition
- Ca₅(PO₄)₃(F,Cl,OH)
- Name
- Apatito
- Group
- Fosfatos
- Category
- Estélites
- Mine
- Cerro del Mercado
- District / Municipality
- Victoria de Durango
- Province
- Cerro de los Remedios
- Region
- Durango
- Country
- México
- Size (cm)
- 2.8 x 1.3 x 1.4
- Weight
- 16.2 g
- Acquired
- 2015
- Ex-collection
- Diego Navarro
- Etymology
- Apatite: Pandora's box The name carries mythological weight. Apatite appears in colors and forms that imitate precious gems (beryl, peridot, tourmaline). It deceived collectors and experts for centuries. Its name comes from the Greek apate (ἀπάτη), which means «deceit». But Apate was not just any word: in Greek mythology, Apate was the goddess of deceit, one of the evil spirits that came out of Pandora's Box. To name a mineral this way is to accuse it of being one of humanity's plagues.
- Quality
- Muy buena
- Value trend
- Al alza