Dragon Minerals - January 15, 2024 Update

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36703: (Magnesio)pascoite - $16
Packrat Mine, Beaver Mesa, Gateway Mining District, Mesa County, Colorado
Small cabinet - 6.6 x 3.3 x 1.3 cm
28 grams
Mildly radioactive
Specimen status: Reserved
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A dark orange crust strip across the face of a dark, somewhat friable matrix (petrified wood?). Previous labels indicate the presence of magnesiopascoite, rossite, metarossite and gypsum. Magnesiopascoite and pascoite are both orange and visually indistinguishable, so in the absence of analytical data I will label this as (magnesio)pascoite. Rossite, metarossite and gypsum are not obviously present. The specimen is mildly radioactive, but not due to any essential element in magnesiopascoite - Ca2Mg(V10O28)·16H2O or in pascoite - Ca2Ca(V10O28)·17H2O, so I conclude the radioactivity is due to something in the matrix. (Carnotite [yellow], coffinite [black] and related uranium minerals are commonly present in small amounts in petrified wood.)




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