Monazite-Ce with Fergusonite-Y

specimen number:
2063553

location:
Iveland, Agder, Norway

description:
A blocky crystal of monazite-Ce measuring 1.0 x 0.8 x 0.3 cm in size is embedded within matrix. Masses of fergusonite-Y are present throughout. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The municipality of Iveland in Agder, Norway, lies within a famous Precambrian shield region where massive, roughly nine-hundred-million-year-old granitic pegmatites intruded into older amphibolite host rocks. Commercial extraction began in the late nineteenth century to harvest feldspar and quartz for ceramics and metallurgy, ultimately opening hundreds of quarries that produced world-renowned rare earth element minerals. The region became a legendary destination for mineralogists and field collectors who explored the historic quarry dumps for rare pegmatite crystallization. Among the notable accessory species found embedded in the feldspar and mica matrices are monazite-Ce, which occurs as lustrous reddish-brown or orange-brown prismatic crystals, and fergusonite-Y, which typically forms dark, brownish-black prismatic to pyramidal crystals or irregular metamict masses rich in yttrium.

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