My feeling is that this is straight out hematite Richard. The morphology fits (in your photo I think I see hexagonal/trigonal form), the lack of magnetism, and the fact that "most" pseudomorphs of any minerals don't have shiny faces, all point to this.
Ouch! Hard way to learn that it was not genuine. But every janitor knows water is the universal solvent. Nothing really stops water. And especially if there's any acid or alkalinity or volatiles in it, it can do even more crazy stuff. Distilled water may be the least powerful solvent, I don't know. Before I got into minerals, I had no idea what water could do deep inside the Earth.
Hi Mike, not sure what you mean by not genuine? I have no doubt at all that it is a natural mineral, but as Steve says in his comment, I pretty much do accept that it may not be a pseudo after magnetite but just hematite. (also I removed the duplicate comment just as clean-up).
My ~140grams/5oz log of 'Madagascan' aquamarine (deep blue & green) boasts a fantastic display of also the `Plumose` surface features - as in crystal "dissolution": of which i was told/taught. ;)
Thanks! I think I might also expect surface features on a hard silicate like aquamarine to be results of dissolution. I definitely don't know for sure in this hematite, but I guess I'd expect any dissolution to have also affected the surface, which largely remains mirror-bright, so I speculate that it is some pattern of growth - but I certainly do not know!
inference, knowledge, or simply belief of information, all 3 could be accurate and correct to material reality and facts, regardless.
i know for a fact that Water Etches crystals/objects, too, as well as a re-dissolving of solid back into liquid phase as adfore mentioned with or without H2O content, as in magma. Anyways, i bought pieces of what was sold to me as "man-made"=emeralds, they obivously Are Not even beryls with they way one of them broke into 2 pieces with a matte-fracture, plus my sweat dissolved the green colouration and stained my pinky & ring fingers as i broke mypinky knuckle bone and had my hand in a 70celcius heat mold plastic splint that was tailor made for me, And Etched the 'crystals'(the finger spacer i used is in 2 pieces now after a 1~2 feet fall from a stool),
So, a dissolution/re-dissolution action is just as valid as Water Etching the crystal (for a long time) after it was made, Very Clearly displayed as the 8kg smokey Scepter in its case that the central Citrine stalk grew first, then the wide-made pointed smokey Scepterized it, its tip broke, and then the geologic conditions had it kept growing, then a White Quartz is perched in the center, And All of that was Etched by Water for millenias with very blunt/stepped areas all over its tip AND the white quartz! O_O;
Surface features on my Beryls: the Madagascan blue-green stick with flow patterms, Pakistani DT aqua with an obvious stepped termination, & unknown location of flow pattern Morganite over aquamarine suspected to be either Paki or Chinese due to CN seller on ebay.
My feeling is that this is straight out hematite Richard. The morphology fits (in your photo I think I see hexagonal/trigonal form), the lack of magnetism, and the fact that "most" pseudomorphs of any minerals don't have shiny faces, all point to this.
Sounds good to me. That's what I secretly thought anyway, even if it doesn't come across in the post :) Thanks!
Ouch! Hard way to learn that it was not genuine. But every janitor knows water is the universal solvent. Nothing really stops water. And especially if there's any acid or alkalinity or volatiles in it, it can do even more crazy stuff. Distilled water may be the least powerful solvent, I don't know. Before I got into minerals, I had no idea what water could do deep inside the Earth.
Hi Mike, not sure what you mean by not genuine? I have no doubt at all that it is a natural mineral, but as Steve says in his comment, I pretty much do accept that it may not be a pseudo after magnetite but just hematite. (also I removed the duplicate comment just as clean-up).
My ~140grams/5oz log of 'Madagascan' aquamarine (deep blue & green) boasts a fantastic display of also the `Plumose` surface features - as in crystal "dissolution": of which i was told/taught. ;)
Thanks! I think I might also expect surface features on a hard silicate like aquamarine to be results of dissolution. I definitely don't know for sure in this hematite, but I guess I'd expect any dissolution to have also affected the surface, which largely remains mirror-bright, so I speculate that it is some pattern of growth - but I certainly do not know!
inference, knowledge, or simply belief of information, all 3 could be accurate and correct to material reality and facts, regardless.
i know for a fact that Water Etches crystals/objects, too, as well as a re-dissolving of solid back into liquid phase as adfore mentioned with or without H2O content, as in magma. Anyways, i bought pieces of what was sold to me as "man-made"=emeralds, they obivously Are Not even beryls with they way one of them broke into 2 pieces with a matte-fracture, plus my sweat dissolved the green colouration and stained my pinky & ring fingers as i broke mypinky knuckle bone and had my hand in a 70celcius heat mold plastic splint that was tailor made for me, And Etched the 'crystals'(the finger spacer i used is in 2 pieces now after a 1~2 feet fall from a stool),
So, a dissolution/re-dissolution action is just as valid as Water Etching the crystal (for a long time) after it was made, Very Clearly displayed as the 8kg smokey Scepter in its case that the central Citrine stalk grew first, then the wide-made pointed smokey Scepterized it, its tip broke, and then the geologic conditions had it kept growing, then a White Quartz is perched in the center, And All of that was Etched by Water for millenias with very blunt/stepped areas all over its tip AND the white quartz! O_O;
Surface features on my Beryls: the Madagascan blue-green stick with flow patterms, Pakistani DT aqua with an obvious stepped termination, & unknown location of flow pattern Morganite over aquamarine suspected to be either Paki or Chinese due to CN seller on ebay.
pictures location - https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17wUZ3L5ZV/ .