Fluorapatite

specimen number:
2102183

location:
Harvard Quarry, Greenwood, Maine, USA

description:
Light purple tabular crystals of fluorapatite to 0.4 cm in size on matrix. In good condition. Good locality example for the species.

The Harvard Quarry, located on Noyes Mountain in Greenwood, Oxford County, Maine, is a classic New England locality renowned for its diverse pegmatite mineralogy. Geologically, the site is a complex granitic pegmatite belonging to the Oxford County pegmatite field, characterized by distinct zonation and highly evolved mineral assemblages. It is particularly famous for producing world-class specimens of purple fluorapatite, which occur as sharp, lustrous, hexagonal crystals within hydrothermal pockets, often associated with smoky quartz, cleavelandite, and lepidolite. Historically, the quarry was opened in the late 19th century and gained its name after the Harvard University Mineralogical Museum conducted extensive excavations there during the 1910s and 1920s to secure specimens for their collection. While commercial mining was never the primary focus, the quarry has been a favorite for specimen collectors for over a century. Today, it is part of a conserved educational site, allowing mineralogists to study the late-stage crystallization processes that produced some of the finest purple apatite crystals in the United States.

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