aragonite
Size: medium
Approx. size 3"
Weight: approx. 62g
Origin: Marocco
 
~Aragonite~
Aragonite was first found as reddish twinned crystals with the form of six-sided prisms, at Molina in Aragon, Spain, where it occurs with gypsum and small crystals of ferruginous quartz in a red clay. It is from this locality that the mineral takes its name, which was originally spelled arragonite. Fine groups of crystals of the same habit are found in the sulfur deposits of Girgenti in Sicily; also at Herrengrund near Neusohl in Hungary. At many other localities the mineral takes the form of radiating groups of acicular crystals, such as those from the haematite mines of west Cumberland: beautiful feathery forms have been found in a limestone cave in the Transvaal. Fibrous forms are also common. A peculiar coralloidal variety known as flosferri (“flower of iron”) consists of radially arranged fibers: magnificent snow-white specimens of this variety have long been known from the iron mines of Eisenetz in Styria. The calcareous secretions of many groups of invertebrate animals consist of aragonite (calcite is also common); pearls may be specially cited as an example.
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