Messelite

specimen number:
2354195

location:
Prinz Vin Hessen Mine, Messel, Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany

description:
Radiating crystal groupings of messelite to 0.4 cm in diameter sparsely scattered across one side of matrix. Good example for the species.

Located near the town of Messel in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany, the Prinz von Hessen Mine is situated in an old iron and oil shale mining area within a Eocene sedimentary basin formed by ancient volcanic activity. The deposit originated as a freshwater lake where rich organic matter and iron-phosphate sediments accumulated under anaerobic conditions, facilitating the hydrothermal or authigenic crystallization of rare iron and calcium phosphate minerals. The mine is historically significant as the co-type locality for messelite, a rare hydrated iron calcium phosphate mineral first discovered and described from this site in the late nineteenth century. Early iron mining efforts brought these unique microscopic to small tabular crystal clusters to light, making the locality famous among mineral collectors and researchers for its classic phosphate species before commercial mining operations permanently ceased.

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