Fluorapophyllite

Fluorapophyllite from the Nasik District, Maharashtra, India, measuring 60 × 44 × 44 mm and weighing 109 grams. A solid, blocky piece of one of the Deccan Traps' most familiar zeolite-group minerals.

Fluorapophyllite, the fluorine-dominant member of the apophyllite group, typically forms pseudocubic, tetragonal crystals with a pearly to vitreous lustre on their basal cleavage, usually pale green, colourless or white. It crystallised, like the region's other zeolite-group minerals, from late-stage, low-temperature fluids filling gas cavities in the Deccan Traps, the enormous pile of flood basalt erupted across much of western India around 66 million years ago; the Nasik district is one of the classic sources of this material, alongside the better-known Jalgaon and Poona areas.

A solid Nasik Fluorapophyllite is a reliable, affordable representative of the Deccan Traps zeolite suite that has made Maharashtra one of the most collected basalt-mineral provinces in the world. This piece is from the David Vince Collection.