A Geoscience Digital Image Library
A Geoscience Digital Image Library
| Title | Apatite |
|---|---|
| Description | Apatite, Ca5(PO4)3(OH,F,Cl) is the most common phosphate mineral. It is present in many rocks of different sorts but is generally too fine grained and disseminated to be seen easily. It sometimes forms in massive sedimentary beds (phosphorites) which are mined to manufacture fertilizers and other chemicals. Apatite may be transparent to opaque in shades of green, brown, yellow, white, red, and purple. Some yellow-green (asparagus stone) and blue-green (manganapatite) varieties are used in jewelry. Well-formed apatite crystals are hexagonal prisms, but the hexagonal nature does not show in this massive sample (about 9 cm across). This sample comes from the Lake Clear region of the Proterozoic Grenville province in southeastern Ontario, a region that contains at least four apatite deposits which produced a total of perhaps 2,000 tonnes of apatite in the 1880s. |
| Chronostratigraphy | Proterozoic |
| Geologic province | Grenville |
| Location | Canada ▹ Ontario ▹ Renfrew |
| Photographer | Nessa Eull. 2001-06-19. |
| Collection | University of North Dakota Mineralogy Collection #1017. |
| Key words | apatite, Ontario, Canada |
| Tech details | 691 KB. Hand specimen. Fujifilm FinePix S1Pro digital camera; 60mm AF Nikon micro lens. |
| GeoDIL number | 791 |
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