Minerals of the Chickering Mine Walpole, NH APATITE-(CaF) Ca5(PO4)3F Back to Chickering front page. | |
Specimen owner ID's (capitals): TM = Tom Mortimer, BW = Bob Wilken, BJ = Bob Janules, PC = Peter Cristofono, AW = Anna Wilken Photographer ID's (lower case). Identification: WDS analysis of four different Chickering Mine apatites (blue massive, lavender prismatic, milky tabular, and botryoidal) confirmed all were fluorapatite. I [tm] recognize the official Apatite-(CaF) species name has reverted to Fluorapatite. In the alphabetical order sense, most mineral collectors think of "Apatite" first, before refinement to fluorapatite or hydroxylapatite. For this reason the Apatite-(CaF) and Apatite-(CaOH) nomenclature is used here. Discussion: APA_1: This apatite fluoresces orange in SW UV and red in LW UV. APA_4, APA_5: TM, BJ and others collected many specimens of these lavender-colored prismatic apatites from a quartz core zone in the center of the pit during 2004. |