I first traveled to Greenland in 2001. I came home with wide eyes and a huge bag of rocks. A little bit later my large shipment arrived by boat with more rocks. Among the rocks in that shipment was a couple of combo pieces of sodalite and fluorite. Very pretty, and I promptly peddled them off figuring there's more where they came from. Little did I know...
For the next dozen years every summer I hunted for more. They were striking, but I was never able to find them again. Each year was going to be "the year" but it never was. Bummer....
This weekend I broke open a rock from the Kvanefjeld area (Narsaq Elv) and lo and behold - sodalite and fluorite. Admittedly, these are not the same as the original find, but still pretty neat to find fluorite after all these years. Fluorite is quite rare within the Ilimaussaq Complex, much less mixed with sodalite. Best under longwave, these are little fluorite cubes sprinkled throughout the sodalite matrix. Under shortwave the sodalite darkens quite a bit (tenebrescence) and once the darker color sets in the sodalite turns a rusty orange, and the fluorite is even a little more visible. They aren't big crystals, but it is a unique find - especially after all these years.
