Sulphohalite

specimen number:
2133367

location:
Searles Lake, San Bernardino Co., California, USA

description:
A sharp yellow mostly gemmy crystal of sulphohalite. In great condition and brightly fluorescent.

Searles Lake, located in the high desert region of San Bernardino County, California, is a massive, dry playa famous for its vast, ultra-rich underground deposits of evaporite minerals. Geologically, the lake basin was formed during the Pleistocene epoch when runoff waters from melting ice-age glaciers collected in a chain of deep lakes, depositing heavily concentrated dissolved salts, borates, and carbonates. As the climate warmed and the water evaporated, it left behind a layered, brine-saturated crystalline bed containing a complex assembly of rare minerals such as halite, trona, borax, and hanksite. The historical timeline of commercial extraction began in 1862 when John W. Searles discovered surface borax deposits, leading him to form the San Bernardino Borax Mining Company in 1873, which utilized large mule teams to haul the material across the desert until its sale in 1897. Industrial processing underwent significant expansion in 1913 with the founding of the American Trona Corporation and the completion of the Trona Railway, transitioning the site into a massive soda ash and potash extraction center that has remained continuously active under various corporate entities into the 2020s.

Sulphohalite is an uncommon sodium chlorosulfate mineral that crystallizes in the isometric system, typically forming sharp, translucent to transparent octahedral or dodecahedral crystals that range from colorless to pale shades of yellow or green. Geologically, it is an evaporite mineral that precipitates in highly specific, complex saline lakes and continental playa environments, typically forming as a result of the extreme evaporation of alkaline waters rich in sulfate, carbonate, and halide ions. It was originally discovered and described in 1888 from the deep brine horizons of Searles Lake in San Bernardino County, California, which remains its most famous and productive locality. Because sulphohalite is readily soluble in water, specimens must be carefully preserved and kept away from moisture to prevent the crystal faces from dulling or dissolving over time.

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