Beryl

specimen number:
2102335

location:
Orchard Pit, Buckfield, Maine, USA

description:
A loose lustrous slightly translucent yellowish green crystal of beryl. In good condition. Said to be from 1990.

The Orchard pit, alternatively known as the Orchard quarry, situated just west of the famous Bennett quarry in Buckfield, Oxford County, Maine, United States, is a classic and highly specialized pegmatite locality celebrated for producing exceptional specimens of etched gem beryl, ranging from pastel aquamarine to vibrant golden heliodor, as well as remarkably large crystals of the rare beryllium silicate phenakite. Geologically, this site exposes a highly evolved, lithium-bearing granitic pegmatite dike hosted within Paleozoic-age metamorphic schists, which crystallized during the cooling phases of late-stage tectonic intrusions associated with the Devonian or Carboniferous orogenies. Volatile-rich and beryllium-rich hydrothermal solutions concentrated within the central core zone of the pegmatite, generating highly mineralized miarolitic pockets lined with albite, smoky quartz, and columbite, where late-stage fluids naturally etched the pristine beryl prisms into intricate geometric patterns. Historically, small-scale exploratory prospecting and localized surface trenching for industrial feldspar and mica occurred sporadically at the site during the early-to-mid twentieth century, but the pit achieved its greatest mineralogical fame as a dedicated commercial specimen operation beginning in the late 1990s and continuing intensely through the early 2000s, when mechanized mining breached major pocket zones.

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