Frédéric Messier Leroux
Aug 21, 2021
Shown here is a nice cabinet-sized specimen of dark green scapolite Var. "wernerite", from Grenville-Sur-La-Rouge, Quebec, Canada. It is very coarse-grained, pegmatitic so to speak; and it has nicely gemmy areas. Like noticed by a member of the facebook FMS group when I posted this specimen a few days ago, just like the "emerald green" variety of sodalite from Greenland, the more gemmy area fluoresce less brightly than the more opaque areas. I have no idea why; my assumption is that despite their gemminess, the transluscent areas are less pure, and contain finely disseminated non-fluorescent inclusions.
As it's always the case with Grenville wernerite, the brightest response is seen under longwave UV; midwave UV and shortwave UV also produce a decent fluorescence but alas, unlike the best specimens from the area, there is no blueish-white SW fluorescing diopside in it.
Size: 10,5 cm X 8,8 cm X 5,4 cm
Shown below are the longwave UV response, and the specimen in visible light.
Longwave UV
Visible light.