Richmond crystal

Monday 15 April 2013

The Russians named a city after the mineral: Apatite


Apatite derives from the Greek word apate or apaptos, what means "to deceive" because the apatites stones were often entangled and interchanged with other minerals. Apatite is a stone that comes in many colors; from blue/green, to yellow/purple and crème white. A colorless variant of Apatite has been excavated near Tavistock, Devonshire.

Apatite can be found all over the world. In North America it is found mostly around the Central Metasedimentary Belt which is located in Ontario, near the Great lakes. Apatite is also found in East Africa, South America, Europe and Russia, where they understood the importance of the mineral for the area that they gave a town the same name: The town of Apatity is located in the center of the Kola Peninsula, 100 miles south of city of Murmansk. It was founded in 1935 and has according to recent counts around the 60.000 inhabitants.

The story goes that a 500 pound apatite mineral was shipped from America to Europe for an exposition in Paris in 1878. It was said that the mineral was originally larger, but the captain of the ship considered that it took to much space in the ship hold, so he ordered to cut the mineral in smaller pieces.

I personally think that the most beautiful Apatite is colored Blue. Most of the blue Apatite is recognizable of its fascinating patterns and its enchanting blue to green shade.

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Apatite pendant

Apatite pendant with leather cord

http://www.richmondcrystal.co.uk/apatite-pendant-2.html