Fluorescent Mineral Database

A new secret project! Trying to create a nice Fluorescent Mineral Database (FMDB), which would be searchable by mineral, locality, and luminescence properties. Also making it easy for people to contribute with their own specimens!

Tarbuttite from the Skorpion Mine, Namibia

Contributed by: FMS Admin
minID:
Date: Jan 20th, 2025
Locality: Skorpion Mine, Rosh Pinah, Oranjemund Constituency, ?Karas Region, Namibia (See on Mindat)

Description:
Soft pastel green sheaves of Tarbuttite from the Skorpion Mine, Rosh Pinah, Karas Region, Namibia. Tarbuttite is a rare phosphate mineral with formula Zn2(PO4)(OH). It was discovered in 1907 in what is now Zambia and named for Percy Tarbutt. Tarbuttite is white, yellow, red, green, brown, or colorless; in transmitted light it is colorless. Traces of copper cause green coloring, while iron hydroxides cause the other colors. Colorless crystals tend to be transparent while colored specimens have varying degrees of transparency. Contributed by Marco Frigerio.

Normal light.
Normal light.
Fluorescence under longwave UV light.
Fluorescence under longwave UV light.

Summary of luminescence responses:

Tarbuttite

  • Fluorescence under Longwave (365nm LED) UV light: Orange

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