Brookite

specimen number:
2262017

location:
Magnet Cove, Arkansas, USA

description:
A choice thumbnail specimen from this classic Arkansas locality. A pair of sharp large well-formed crystals of brookite forming a cluster without matrix. This is in super condition.

Magnet Cove, located in Hot Spring County, Arkansas, is a world-renowned mineralogical site famous for its complex alkaline igneous geology. The area is defined by a ring-dike complex that formed approximately 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period when a series of alkaline magmas intruded into Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. This unique geochemistry created a concentrated area of rare minerals, including varieties of garnet, perovskite, and various titanium-bearing species. Historically, the area was never a site for a single large-scale industrial mine, but rather a collection of scattered pits and quarries exploited for different materials. Magnetite was collected for iron as early as the mid-1800s, and later operations in the 20th century, specifically between the 1930s and the 1970s, focused on the extraction of barite and titanium ores like rutile and brookite. Today, Magnet Cove is considered a premier research locality, with over 100 different mineral species identified within its relatively small geographic footprint.

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