Fluorapophyllite-K (SUL-0012)

specimen number:
9273103

location:
Pune, Maharashtra, India

description:
Gorgeous glassy and gemmy deep green crystals of fluorapophyllite to 1.5 cm in size across the top of matrix. This is in terrific condition. Colorless crystals of stilbite are present as well.

The Pune district, located within the western Maharashtra state of India, represents a massive industrial stone-quarrying region famously interlinked with secondary zeolitic mineralization. Geologically, the area is situated entirely within the thick sequences of the Cretaceous to Eocene-age Deccan Traps, one of the largest volcanic provinces on Earth, composed of horizontally layered tholeiitic basalt flows. During the cooling and degassing of these massive lava sheets, trapped volcanic gases formed numerous spherical and elongated vesicles, which were later penetrated by low-temperature, silica-rich hydrothermal fluids that slowly precipitated secondary minerals, including blocky, prismatic, and pyramidal crystals of green fluorapophyllite-k alongside stilbite, heulandite, scolecite, and quartz. Historically, small-scale quarrying for local building stone has occurred for centuries, but large-scale commercial open-pit basalt quarrying expanded significantly during the mid-twentieth century, around the 1960s and 1970s, driven by rapid urban development and infrastructure demands in Pune and nearby Mumbai. These continuous, intensive industrial surface blasting and aggregate-crushing operations have consistently intersected deep mineral-bearing gas cavities across active quarry clusters like Wagholi, Pashan, and Katraj, with systematic extraction, geological documentation, and localized mineral distribution continuing to operate under regional municipal guidelines through 2026.

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