Detailed Description

A beautiful cluster of dark red chabazite crystals from Wasson’s Bluff, accompanied by pearly heulandite crystals. The chabazite crystals include penetration twins and also one uncommon contact twin. This piece was collected in 2016 and was in Terry Collett’s collection. In excellent condition, this is a great little specimen!

About the Minerals and Localities of the Bay of Fundy (click here)

About The Red Chabazites From Wasson’s Bluff

In one relatively small zone at Wasson’s Bluff, the chabazite crystals are a particular dark red hue – more intense and lighter than a brown, and most are a bit deeper and darker than a brick red or deep orange. This zone has produced sporadically over history. Most often, days of very hard work in this area yield absolutely nothing, but a few isolated finds in recent years have produced a small number of excellent pieces – these specimens are from those finds.

In historic times, these particular deep-coloured chabazites from Wasson’s Bluff were known as “acadialite”, named for Acadia (which is the English for L’Acadie, the colonial-era name for this part of Canada). The name “acadialite” is sometimes still seen on older collection labels, sometimes as a species name and sometimes as a varietal name. Under current nomenclature, these specimens are known as chabazite, with “acadialite” now considered a historical synonym.

Please Note: the colour representation in the still photographs has been carefully calibrated and adjusted to approximate an accurate rendition of this specimen in daylight (shade). The colours in the video are not similarly adjusted.