This colorful fluorescent specimen is from the Desert View Mine, Holcomb Valley, San Bernardino Mts, San Bernardino Co., California, and predominantly contains bright yellow fluorescent wollastonite and red fluorescent calcite. The following photograph was taken under short wave UV (254nm):
Short Wave UV (254nm)
The following photograph shows the same specimen under visible light:
Visible Light
The Desert View Mine location is notable because it is mineralogically similar to the Franklin-Sterling Hill area of New Jersey, and hosts a suite of rare minerals, some of which are found at only these two locations. One such mineral, blue fluorescent hardystonite, had previously been thought to only occur as part of the assemblage of Parker Shaft minerals from Franklin, until its discovery at the Desert View mine in 2012. The following close-up photograph of this specimen, taken under short wave UV, shows a region that appears to contain small blebs of a blue fluorescent mineral, perhaps hardystonite (indicated by arrow):
Close-up taken under short wave UV (254nm). The arrow points to the area containing the suspected hardystonite occurence. FOV = ~15 mm
The size of this specimen is 61 x 43 x 22 mm, and it weighs 48 grams.