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A very nice, gemmy emerald green sodalite specimen.
Early in our exploration of the Ilimaussaq Complex we came across a boulder high on the cliffs above the Tunuliarfik Fjord. The sodalite was colored a gemmy green and fluoresced brightly under all wavelengths.
This material is very hard. The matrix is a solid lujavrite and the sodalite occurs as veins in the matrix. The boulder was probably several hundred pounds and it took drilling and our Micro-Blaster to break it into manageable chunks. Once broken the material supplied subsequent tour visitors with some very nice specimens. By 2007 this material was gone, and we were never able to find another deposit of this exceptionally colored sodalite.
The bright green veins are the most obvious, but as can be seen from the fluorescent pics, the sodalite is disseminated throughout the matrix. Small areas of green fluorescence are uranyl activated
They were nicknamed "Yooperlites" which is derived from the name “yooper”. A yooper is a nickname for the Upper Peninsula natives and these fluorescent stones quickly gained fame. After data was published on these fluorescent stones, it was discovered that sodalite is the actual true mineral that is fluorescing orange.
365nm UV light is often called "blacklight". Before the advent of longwave UV LEDs, blacklight fluorescent tubes, (the kinds used in hippie days to light up psychedelic posters) were the standard longwave UV light for our hobby. They were not very powerful but they did light a large area.
Enter 365nm UV LEDs
First, an animation showing the difference between the UV flashlight we recommend (365nm filtered UV flashlight) versus unfiltered 395nm UV flashlights we see many folks carrying around at shows. So. much. visible purple light. We selected a bunch of rocks as a demonstration. Took pictures of them under his flashlight without the filter and then with the filter.
