Sussexite

This specimen, a polished cut through a thinly layered vein about 4 cm thick, features pink sussexite, yellow willemite, and nearly white calcite in a matrix of altered, granular, franklinite-willemite ore. This specimen was shown in a black-and-white photo as Figure 12-44 in Dunn (1995, p. 311) and is here shown in color. Dunn called attention to the nonsymmetrical arrangement of mineral layers in the vein, indicating that the depositional sequence was more complex than simple layer accretion onto the two walls of an open fracture but instead involved multiple events. Note also the “bleached” zone in the ore immediately adjacent to the vein, a legacy of hydrothermal fluid flow. This is specimen R6606 in the mineral collection of the Smithsonian Institution and is probably from the same find as specimens SSX20 and SSX41.

Click image to change size.

View Large Image Only