Calcite

specimen number:
2062979

location:
Picher Field, Tri-State District, Kansas-Oklahoma, USA

description:
A pale yellow double terminated lustrous scalenohedral calcite crystal 8.5 x 3.5 x 3.5 cm in size purchase aesthetically up on a chert matrix. This is in very good condition and complete all around. Typical of many of the calcite specimens collected during this era, I believe this one was lightly touched with acid to improve luster. This was not dipped as long or as bad as many of them, but I believe it was done. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The Picher Field, spanning northeastern Oklahoma and southeastern Kansas as part of the broader Tri-State lead and zinc mining district, experienced a rich history of extraction that began with major commercial mining around 1914 and peaked during World Wars I and II before operations declined and eventually ceased in the late 20th century. Geologically, the ore deposits are hosted within Mississippi-aged, chert-bearing carbonate rocks of the Boone Formation, where regional hydrothermal fluids deposited Mississippi Valley-type sulfide mineralizations, primarily sphalerite and galena, along fractured strata, collapse breccias, and karst solution cavities.

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