Calcite with Sphalerite

specimen number:
2063253

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

description:
A semi lustrous slightly translucent sharply formed double terminated crystal of calcite set up on a small partially crystallized sphalerite. The calcite is perfect all around. The sphalerite cleaved on the bottom. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark. The crystal habit on this one is slightly unusual for the mining district, this habit actually more prevalent in the Viburnum Trend for the species. But this is definitely from the old Tri-State District.

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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