Gypsum

specimen number:
2292243

location:
Salinas de Otuma, Otuma, Paracas, Pisco, Ica, Peru

description:
Semi lustrous gemmy orange twinned crystals of gypsum measuring to 4.0 cm in height across the top of matrix. In good condition. This would have been collected in the early part of the 2000's. Brightly fluorescent.

The Salinas de Otuma salt pans, situated within the Paracas district of Pisco Province in the Ica Region of Peru, comprise a historic evaporite deposit worked primarily for industrial and domestic salt extraction. Geologically, the locality is a coastal depression or playa system bordered by Tertiary marine sedimentary formations of the Pisco Basin, where high evaporation rates under arid desert conditions precipitate thick layers of halite, alongside spectacular, gemmy orange twinned gypsum crystals that are often closely associated with the halite. Documented extraction by local inhabitants dates back centuries to pre-Hispanic and colonial eras, while organized, small-scale commercial quarrying and artisanal harvesting gained momentum in the early to mid-twentieth century to supply regional markets. These shallow open-air operations have expanded and modernized incrementally, remaining continuously active under local concessions to harvest industrial-grade salt and occasional collector-quality gypsum specimens well into the 2020s.

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