Prehnite

specimen number:
2063833

location:
Prospect Park, New Jersey, USA

description:
Lustrous light green botryoidal crystallized prehnite across the front of matrix. This is in good condition. Choice thumbnail for this American classic.

Prospect Park, located in Passaic County, New Jersey, is world-renowned among mineralogists for its magnificent trap rock quarrying history and exceptional secondary zeolites and silicate minerals, most notably prehnite. Geologically situated within the Watchung Basalt flows of the Newark Basin, the site formed during the Early Jurassic period as lava flows cooled and trapped hydrothermal fluids in volcanic vesicles and gas cavities. Active quarrying operations at the famous Sowerbutt Quarry, later known as the Prospect Park Quarry, excavated massive amounts of basalt for crushed stone construction material throughout the twentieth century. In the process, miners and local collectors uncovered spectacular pocket cavities lined with globe-like botryoidal aggregates, translucent sea-green crusts, and distinct radial sprays of prehnite. Often associated with lustrous quartz, datolite, and various zeolite minerals, prehnite specimens from Prospect Park are celebrated across major museum collections as quintessential examples of classic mid-Atlantic mineralogy.

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