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We recently returned from a wonderful adventure in Greenland mining for rare fluorescent minerals. Over the next few months, we'll be listing our finds on our website and eBay account. There were some interesting new finds we have not seen in prior specimens out of this area.
This incredible colorful and bright specimen comes from remote Kangerlussaq Fjord in the Ilimaussaq Complex of Greenland, where you will find the highly sought-after “Kangerella”. Pieces from this area within the Ilimaussaq Complex were nicknamed "Kangerella" for their beauty. The tugtupite responds differently to each wavelength, is very tenebrescent, and very phosphorescent. The bluish-green fluorescing chkalovite responds under all wavelengths. The polylithionite fluoresces a bright yellow/green under shortwave UV light.
These pieces are probably our favorite find from the Ilimaussaq Complex. The tugtupite occurs as veins in a chkalovite matrix. The bluish green fluorescing chkalovite on this piece is striking, as is of course the tugtupite. The polylithionite consists of fine crystal of yellow fluorescence.
There's a lot of history in these pieces. Early in our travels to Greenland we stumbled across pieces like this in an area of what appeared to be circles of rocks - kind of like a series of very large old campfires (which they weren't as there is no firewood in Greenland). Within these circles we found these very unusual pieces such as this but could not find a source other than the rock circles.
We did some research and found that Sorensen (a Danish geologist in the 50's) had discovered a line of white boulders stretching from the cliffs to the shoreline in this area (the Kangerlussaq Fjord). Only then did we realize what the rock circles were; the locals had obliterated the white boulders in search for tugtupite (most commonly found in association with chkalovite - a white mineral). What was left were the circles of rock pieces.
This was a fortuitous find. During a later tour (2005) one of the group (a fellow named Herb) decided to trace this trail of rock chips, on his hands and knees until he found the source - a vein hidden in the crumbled syenite gravel. This was eventually excavated to reveal a small but beautiful vein of purple colored tugtupite; many cabochons were made from this material, and some superb collector pieces found their way into the collector community. We nicknamed that material "Kangerella". Those were the good ol' days!
The deposit of this very unique material has since been mined out we only had a few remaining pieces left, occasionally finding one hidden in our inventory. It is a beautiful pinkish/red fluorescing tugtupite, along with greenish/yellow fluorescing polylithionite and blueish fluorescing chkalovite and dark orange sodalite. The tugtupite fluoresces differently under each of the main wavelengths (like terlingua calcite) and is very phosphorescent (see pics).
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.
A major component of rock collecting (for us) is simply getting out in nature. A buddy dragged us out to a very remote area here in middle Tennessee to hunt for fluorescent green agate. Since we consider ourselves pure "Glow Hounds" we weren't anticipating any glow rocks, just the beauty of the area, but we brought our UV lights anyway.
