Bloedite

specimen number:
2063521

location:
Soda Lake, San Luis Obispo Co., California, USA

description:
Very choice for the species, a loose double terminated floater colorless mostly gemmy crystal of bloedite, this very dark in color with inclusions throughout. From the 1970s, the specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

Located in the desolate Carrizo Plain of San Luis Obispo County, California, Soda Lake is an endorheic playa formed within a structural basin along the San Andreas Fault Zone. The lake operates as an evaporite basin where mineral-rich runoff collects and evaporates under arid conditions, precipitating thick surface crusts of sodium and magnesium sulfate salts. Commercial harvesting of these salt deposits occurred intermittently during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, primarily targeting sodium sulfate for industrial use before the site became part of a protected national monument. Among the evaporite minerals present, bloedite is notable as a hydrated sodium magnesium sulfate that crystallizes directly from concentrated saline brines, forming transparent to cloudy monoclinic crystals and massive crusts. Field collecting within the basin is today strictly regulated or prohibited due to environmental conservation efforts protecting the delicate alkali wetland habitat.

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