The Wannenköpfe
Ochtendung, Eifel region, Germany
The Minerals
CORDIERITE
If you want to find nice big Cordierite crystals, the Wannenköpfe should not be your first choice ! A rare mineral at the Wannenköpfe, you're very lucky if you find some specimens. In all these years I found just a few of them.
Cordierite is a magnesium aluminium cyclosilicate, often with some Iron. Another old name is Dichroite (Greek), which means: two colored rock, a reference to Cordierite's strong pleochroism. The color changes from violet blue to grayish/yellow as the crystal is turned.
Colors: colorless, yellow, brown, grey, violet, blue. Habitus: pseudo hexagonal short prismatic crystals, often twinned, sometimes imbedded. At the Wannenköpfe the crystals are often really tiny !
Accompanying minerals: Sanidine, Hematite, Cristobalite, Pseudobrookite .... sometimes Mica (Phlogopite ?), Mullite and Osumilite.
Bulkemstraat 22 6369 XW Simpelveld The Netherlands
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