Apophyllite Crystal Cluster

These impressive apophyllite crystals are colourless and have a bright lustre.  These attributes made it a particularly challenging piece to photograph.  This is why we've included a number of photos some of which were taken with different lighting. 

Apophyllite is fairly abundant and can be found in several colours.  The most common is white or greyish white, colourless or almost completely clear.  Crystals are often well formed can be quite large although that is quite rare.

Although often described as a mineral the name apophyllite refers to three minerals whose chemical composition is extremely similar.  They are fluorapophyllite, hydroxyapophyllite and natroapophyllite.  Fluorapophyllite is the most common and abundant and most specimens labelled as apophyllite are fluorapophyllite. 

The word apophyllite comes from the Greek 'apo' (to be off) and 'phyllos' (leaf).  This is because when heated apophyllite flakes like a leaf as water molecules are lost from its crystal structure.

This cluster of apophyllite crystals is far more beautiful than it appears in any of our photos.