Dravite-Uvite

specimen number:
2102432

location:
Powers Farm, St. Lawrence Co., New York, USA

description:
Lustrous black crystals to 3.0 cm in size on matrix. Minimal damage present, still in good condition. These crystals are said to be compositionally zoned between dravite and uvite.

The Powers Farm, situated near Pierrepont in St. Lawrence County, New York, is a globally recognized mineral locality famous for its tourmaline specimens rather than commercial industrial mining. Geologically, the site is positioned within the metasedimentary sequences of the Proterozoic-aged Grenville Province, specifically where highly folded Grenville marbles interstratify with quartzites and gneisses. Localized hydrothermal and metasomatic activity along these contact zones resulted in the crystallization of sharp, lustrous, dark brown to black tourmaline crystals that represent a compositionally zoned dravite-uvite mix, embedded within a highly weathered, coarsely crystalline white calcite and quartz matrix. While never operated as a commercial quarry or industrial ore mine, the property has been exploited as a fee-mining and specimen-digging locality by mineral collectors and geologic institutions since the late nineteenth century. Organized specimen extraction and field collecting by various independent operators have occurred sporadically from approximately 1890 through recent decades, with active digging continuing under controlled access.

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