Scolecite with Calcite

specimen number:
2292145

location:
Nashik, Maharastra, India

description:
A beautiful spray of colorless prismatic scolecite crystals, these hosting many colorless crystals of calcite. In good condition all around.

The Nashik district, located in the northwestern region of Maharashtra, India, is globally recognized for producing massive quantities of well-crystallized zeolite and associated silicate minerals. Geologically, the region is situated entirely within the Cretaceous to Eocene-aged Deccan Traps, one of the largest volcanic provinces on Earth, consisting of thick sequences of subaerial basaltic lava flows. During the cooling of these thick basalt sequences, trapped volcanic gases formed extensive vesicular cavities and fractures, which were later filled by low-temperature hydrothermal fluids depositing secondary minerals including apophyllite, stilbite, heulandite, scolecite, and chalcedony. The region does not host traditional underground metal mines; instead, mineral specimens are recovered entirely as a byproduct of large-scale commercial quarrying for road basalt, aggregate, and building stone. While small-scale quarrying has occurred for centuries, extensive commercial quarry operations and organized mineral specimen recovery expanded rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s to support regional infrastructure development, with numerous active quarries continuing to yield thousands of tons of construction material and architectural specimens into the twenty-first century.

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