Artinite

specimen number:
2063413

location:
Spring Street, Staten Island, New York, USA

description:
Old classic specimen from New York, the top of this matrix is mostly covered with silky white acicular crystallized artinite. In great condition. Good thumbnail.

The geology of Spring Street on Staten Island, New York, is defined by its placement on a large metamorphic serpentine ridge composed of altered ultramafic rock. During construction work for sewer lines and roads in the late 1960s, local collectors uncovered a remarkable discovery at the intersection of Spring Street and Medford Road. The excavation exposed fractures where secondary alteration produced delicate, snow-white, radial sprays of needle-like artinite crystals embedded on dark green serpentinite matrix. Although the site was quickly built over and closed to further collecting by the early 1970s, the specimens gathered during this brief period remain famous among mineral collectors as a rare urban discovery from New York City.

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