Chabazite-Ca with Thomsonite-Ca

specimen number:
2354305

location:
Goble, Columbia Co., Oregon, USA

description:

Good combination specimen for this Oregon locality, a glassy lustrous translucent crystal of chabazite 1.5 cm on edge set on matrix with white balls of crystallized thomsonite. In very good condition.

Situated along the Columbia River in Columbia County, Oregon, the Goble area is famous among mineral collectors for its species-rich vesicular basalt flows, which belong to the Eocene-age Goble Volcanics formation. Historical quarrying and road construction along basalt bluffs exposed numerous gas cavities lined with well-crystallized zeolites, making the locality a premier pacific northwest collecting site during the twentieth century. Within these basalt vugs, chabazite typically occurs as distinct, rhombohedral pseudocubic crystals ranging from white to pale orange, while thomsonite forms striking radial clusters, spherical nodules, or delicate sprays of bladed to acicular white crystals. These secondary minerals formed millions of years ago when low-temperature hydrothermal fluids percolated through the permeable volcanic rock, dissolving trace elements and reprecipitating them inside the empty vesicles. Although active commercial quarrying and private land access restrictions have limited modern collecting opportunities, classic specimens of Goble chabazite and thomsonite remain highly regarded in mineral collections nationwide.

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