Ok, now I'm really stumped. I got a piece of fuchsite from HOO a few weeks ago, and having never seen one before, I expected some shade of pink to arrive. But to my surprise they sent a lovely chunk of green material, so I shrugged my shoulders, labeled it and placed it in my specimen collection. Then yesterday I got to a town with a mineral shop, and they had fuchsite, and it was shades of pink, and looks nothing like what I got from HOO. So I called them today, and they assured me fuchsite is green due to chromium, but of course, so are rubies and alexandrites, so we have no answer here. Can any of you GURUS tell me what color fuchsite is supposed to be, and if different colors can be found in various locations? I'm confused!
Joined: Fri Feb 24, 2006 1:20 am Posts: 2756 Location: Southern California, U.S.A.
CS, I only have a couple of minutes before the next scheduled crisis today. But I took a quick look at Arem's "Color Encyclopedia" and he writes of quartzite:
"A rock made up of tightly packed quartz grains, formed at high temperature and pressure, due to metamorphism. Sometimes it contains small crystals that reflect light, and this material is called aventurine. Usually the included crystals are a green, chrome-rich mica called fuchsite." Green wins.
That's all I can find in a quick look but I'm sure others will contribute more.
Fuchsite is the chromium rich variety of muscovite. It's definitely green. I believe there is a barium muscovite as well that is pinkish.
My Google isn't googling today for some reason or I'd post a link.
Try your search engine for barium muscovite.
Hey, thanks y'all! I googled both and got pics. Now I'm thinking the pink one I got locally is actually this:
Muscovite Aluminoceladonite
Comments: Large, 1cm, purple crystals of muscovite/leucophyllite, (var. alurgite which is an intermediate composition to muscovite and leucophyllite (aluminoceladonite).
There was a picture with this one that seems to look like it, so I'll have to get this info to the vendor so he can take a look, and correct his labels. Thanks so much!!
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2005 6:14 pm Posts: 640 Location: Hohe Tauern N.P., Austria
Hi There!
As posted already before: Fuchsite is green. We also find it in the same area as the emeralds (Both contain Chromium wich gives them the same pure green color) here.
Another tip for the mysterious pinkish "Fuchsite": Maybe this is another type of the mica family: the Lepidolite mica.
Google the pics of it and copare it to the specimen you have.
Joined: Sat Dec 24, 2005 6:03 pm Posts: 34 Location: Holland
Hi,
Fuchsite is a Chromium containing variant of Muscovite (not a tue mineral species!), and it's indeed allways green! (also green muscovite with Vanadium is often called fuchsite).
Lepidolite is found in different shades of pink, but is actually a Biotite variant.
Another pink glimmer (Mica) species is the Chlorite series mineral Kammererite.
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