Levyne-Ca

specimen number:
2354259

location:
Beech Creek Quarry, Grant Co., Oregon, USA

description:
An excellent example for the species with white thin platy crystals measuring to 0.4 cm in size covering an area approximately 3.0 x 2.0 cm in size on a basalt matrix. In good condition.

Located north of Mount Vernon in Grant County, Oregon, the Beech Creek Quarry exposes dark vesicular Miocene basalt flows that host rich cavities lined with secondary minerals. The site was originally operated in the 1960s by the United States Forest Service to crush aggregate for local road construction. During operations, road workers and geologists discovered that gas vesicles within the basalt contained world-class zeolite specimens. Beech Creek Quarry subsequently became famous among mineral collectors as a premier locality for rare calcium-dominant levyne crystals, which often form thin hexagonal plates covered by fibrous white overgrowths of offretite and erionite, frequently nestled alongside lustrous analcime and chabazite. Over decades of field collecting, micro-mineral enthusiasts have carefully extracted these fragile, aesthetic pocket specimens from the exposed basalt walls, establishing the quarry as one of the most notable zeolite localities in the Pacific Northwest.

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