"Tugtulite" and Polylithionite - Greenland

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Famous “Tugtulite” (original story below), similar material from the type locale for tugtupite, Tugtup Aktoforia.

We made many significant discoveries over the 11 years we conducted tours to Greenland, and this was one of the major ones - it was a very fortuitous find. The backstory: Way back (2002) when we first started conducting tours to Greenland, one of the members on the very first tour found this beautiful rock at Tugtup Agtakorfia.

He wasn’t even using a light! His son wanted to go fishing with one of our boat operators but he had little interest in anything but rocks and asked to be dropped at a little promontory to hunt for rocks (sans light). Picked up a pretty rock and brought it back with him, only to discover what a beauty it was. Later, after investigation we learned that he was actually collecting at the same spot where Sorenson discovered tugtupite in the 50’s.

Next tour we went back and found more but had no idea what it was. It is fluorescent a peach color under SW UV, white under MW, and salmon under LW (that was a hint). And it came from the type locality for tugtupite (the exact place where tugtupite was originally discovered in 1958).

Back in the states, we sent some pieces out for analysis. EDS came back and called it a “homogenous blend of tugtupite and sodalite”.

THUS we nicknamed it “tugtulite” and sold it as such (and of course told people what the actual EDS results were). The criticism we received was overwhelming - “How could we invent a nickname for a mineral!!!! ” The nickname stuck. We have since learned that this material is a unique variety of tugtupite, and the proper identification is truly tugtupite. But the critics still gripe. A dozen years later, we are better informed. Franklin has its “crazy calcite”, “1st find”, “2nd find”, “3rd find wollastonite”, “purple willemite”, “mylontinized willemite”, “polka dot ore”, etc etc etc. The Franklin crowd nicknames their rocks to designate where they were found, what they look like, or when they were found. So - we Greenland folk do too. Tugtulite by any other color is still tugtupite.