Samarskite-Y

specimen number:
2262354

location:
Jefferson Co., Colorado, USA

description:
Massive black piece of samarskite. good locality example.

Jefferson County, Colorado, situated along the eastern foothills of the Front Range, has a rich history of prospecting and small-scale mining that began during the mid-nineteenth century gold rushes and expanded to include pegmatite and industrial mineral extraction. Geologically, the region is characterized by Precambrian metamorphic and igneous rocks, including ancient gneisses and schists that were intruded by complex granitic pegmatites during regional tectonic events. These granitic pegmatites are well-known to mineral collectors and geologists for hosting a variety of accessory rare-earth and radioactive oxide minerals. Among these, samarskite, a complex niobium-tantalum-yttrium-iron oxide mineral, occurs as dark, submetallic to black masses and crystals within the internal zones of these zoned pegmatite dikes.

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