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Nahcolite
White, yellowish.Is associated with achievement, success, victory and triumph.
Helps us overcome challenges to reach our goals.
Luster is vitreous.
Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is monoclinic; 2/m.
Crystal Habits include prismatic crystals, but usually massive crus
s.
Cleavage: There is a perfect cleavage.
Specific Gravity is 2.2 (well below average)
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals include other sedimentary evaporite minerals such as hanksite, gaylussite, analcime, halite, pirssonite, northupite, borax and calcite.
Notable Occurrences include Searles Lake, San Bernardino County and Deep Spring Lake, Inyo County, California and the Green River Formation, Colorado, USA; Egypt and Lake Magadi, Kenya.
Best Field Indicators: Environment of formation, cleavage, density, crystal habit and locality.
Colors: Colorless, white, brown or gray
hardness: 2.5
Narsarsukite
Luster is vitreous or adamantine to dull or greasy.Transparency: crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is tetragonal.
Crystal Habits include tabular and prismatic crystals often arranged into sprays and parallel aggregates.
Cleavage is perfect in two directions (prismatic) and good in one direction (basal).
Fracture is uneven to subconchoidal.
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.6 to 2.8
Streak is white.
Other Characteristics: Index of refraction: 1.601 - 1.614 and 1.632 - 1.647.
Associated Minerals are quartz, microcline, albite, amphiboles, carletonite, lorenzenite, calcite, leucosphenite, natrolite and aegirine.
Notable Occurrences include the type locality at Narsarsuk, Greenland and perhaps the best source of Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec, Canada as well as in north-central Montana, USA.
Best Field Indicators: Crystal habit, cleavage, color, associations and localities.
Colors: various shades of yellow, green, pink and brown as well as colorless
Hardness: 6 to 7
Natrojarosite
Luster is vitreous.Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is trigonal; 3 m
Crystal Habits include tabular to flattened rhombohedral looking crystals.
The "rhombohedrons" are actually a combination of two trigonal pyramids.
Crystals are scarce, more commonly as earthy masses, films or crusts, botryoidal and granular.
Cleavage is good in one direction but only seen in the larger crystals.
Fracture is uneven.
Specific Gravity is approximately 3.1 - 3.3 (slightly heavy for translucent minerals, but hard to obtain from crusts)
Streak is yellow.
Associated Minerals are barite, goethite, limonite, hematite and other iron minerals.
Notable Occurrences include Black Hills, South Dakota and Soda Springs Valley, Nevada USA; Chili; Russia; Mexico and Greece.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, associations, color and hardness.
Colors: yellow, orange or brown
Hardness: 3 to 4
Natrolite
Luster is vitreous to dull on some compact masses.Transparency: crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System is orthorhombic; mm2
Crystal Habits include sprays of needle thin acicular crystals with a pyramidal termination.
Also nodules, fiberous and massive crusts.
Cleavage is perfect in two directions, prismatic. Cleavage is rarely seen due to small crystal size.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.2 (very light)
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals are quartz, apophyllite, benitoite, heulandite, stilbite and other zeolites.
Notable Occurrences include Poona, India; San Benito, California; New Jersey and Nova Scotia.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, density and associations.
Colors: clear or white; also tinted yellow and brown
Hardness: 5 to 5.5
Nebula Stone
Nebula Stone has unique and powerful energies.It facilitates memory and recall.
Nebula Stone removes fear, and helps release the old to make room for the new.
It is a very grounding stone, and increases vitality.
It is sometimes called a cosmic window, and is excellent for meditation.
In the physical realm, Nebula Stone is used to to cleanse the kidneys.
Nepheline
Luster is mostly greasy to dull in weathered specimens.Transparency: Crystals are translucent to more rarely transparent.
Crystal System: Hexagonal; 6
Crystal Habits: Usually massive or granular.
Some prismatic to columnar crystals are found with a simple hexagonal cross section.
Cleavage is poor, in three directions, prismatic, but rarely seen.
Fracture is conchoidal to uneven.
Specific Gravity is 2.6+ (average)
Streak is white.
Other Characteristics: Application of acids onto the surface of nepheline will cause a cloudy frosting and powdered nepheline will dissolve in hydrochloric acid.
Associated Minerals include calcite, feldspars such as albite, apatite, biotite, hornblende, cancrinite, sodalite and other feldspathoids.
Notable Occurrences include Kola Pennisula, Russia; Mt. Vesuvius, Italy; Bancroft area, Ontario, Canada and Kennebec Co., Maine, USA.
Best Field Indicators luster, associations, reaction to acids, locality and hardness.
Colors: usually off white to gray or brown and occasionally other tints
Hardness: 5.5 to 6
Nephrite (Jade, Actinolite)
Wide color range.Brings inner strength, fortitude, courage, protection, persistence and completion.
Helps us stand our ground.
Luster is vitreous.
Transparency: examples are translucent to transparent.
Crystal System is monoclinic; 2/m
Crystal Habits include the flattened prismatic and elongated crystal with a dome-like termination that is actually a two of the four faces of a prism.
Also as a fibrous mass (asbestos) and as a fibrous and very compact mass (nephrite jade).
Cleavage: is perfect in two directions at close to 60- and 120-degree angles.
Fracture is splintery to uneven.
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.9 - 3.3 (very slightly above average for translucent minerals).
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals are quartz, lawsaonite, epidote and glaucophane.
Other Characteristics: the compact nephrite variety is extremely tough and is actually stronger than steel.
Notable Occurrences include the Lake Baikal Region, Russia; China; New Zealand; British Columbia, Canada and Taiwan.
Best Field Indicators are toughness (nephrite jade), fibrosity (asbestos), typical green color, crystal habit and hardness.
Colors: green and greenish-gray, opaque, sometimes speckled
Colors: green, white or gray
Hardness: 6 to 6.5
Neptunite
Luster is vitreous.Transparency crystals are translucent to opaque.
Crystal System is monoclinic; 2/m
Crystal Habits include prismatic, elongated crystals with nearly square cross-sections.
The terminations are modified and slanted dome faces. Also found massive and in disseminated grains.
Cleavage is perfect in two direction at 80 and 100 degree angles.
Fracture is splintery.
Hardness is 5.5 specific Gravity is approximately 3.23 (slightly above average)
Streak is reddish-brown.
Associated Minerals are benitoite, natrolite, serpentine, aegerine and joaquinite.
Other Characteristics: an internal red reflection can sometimes be seen through the prismatic crystal faces.
Notable Occurrences include the famous San Benito Co., California site as well as Narsarssuk Greenland and the Kola peninsula, Russia.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, internal reflection, streak, associations, color, and cleavage.
Colors: black to reddish black
Hardness: 5.5
New Zealand Jade
Only one material has ever fulfilled the role of tool, weapon, ornament, spiritual medium and money for early humans: Jade.BR> Jade is nephrite to the scientist, pounamu to the New Zealand Maori and greenstone to many kiwis (New Zealanders).Jade has played an important part in the evolution of our technology development and art because of the many physical properties it possesses.
It is the toughest, natural material on earth, has a range of colors and degrees of translucency, incredible durability, sensual feel and audio properties.
Just like other early civilizations all over the globe 8000 years ago, the Maori discovered jade in New Zealand, and have expressed their presence and appreciation of New Zealand itself with jade.
Jade was formed under unique circumstances within the earth's crust.
Nephrite Jade is found in many places around the world, but appears so abundantly in the Sayan Mountains in New Zealand that it is often referred to as New Zealand Jade.
This same "New Zealand Jade" is said to be the most powerful of the Nephrite Jades.
In New Zealand, a land untouched by time, jade images of ancestral figures are worn in ceremonies.
The stone is protective and will guard against accidents.
Colors: dark green with white/light green swirl/patterned, green, dark green
Hardness: 6.5 to 7
Nickel
Luster is metallic.Transparency is opaque.
Crystal System is isometric
Crystal Habits crystal form is extremely rare; cubic when found, but generally granular or massive.
Cleavage is absent.
Fracture is hackly.
Streak is gray metallic.
Specific Gravity is 7.8-8.2 (heavy even for metallic)
Other Characteristics: malleable, mildly attracted to magnets.
Associated Minerals are olivine, pyroxenes, and some minerals that are only found in meteorites.
In terrestrial samples it is found with gold and platinum and with sulfide ores.
Notable Occurrences New Caledonia, Meteor Crater, Arizona and San Diego County California, USA
Best Field Indicators are environment, weak attraction to magnets, malleability.
Colors: bluish white
Hardness: 4 to 5
Nickeline
Luster is metallic.Transparency: Crystals are opaque.
Crystal System: Hexagonal; 6/m 2/m 2/m
Crystal Habits are limited to mostly massive and granular components of massive hydrothermal sulfide rocks and gabbros, but a few localities have produced good pyramidal or tabular crystals.
Columnar and reniform habits are also seen.
Rare fourling twins are also seen. Cleavage: Not observed.
Fracture: Uneven.
Specific Gravity is approximately 7.8 (well above average for metallic minerals)
Streak: Dark brown to black.
Other Characteristics: Will often develop a dark tarnish on fresh surfaces and weathered surfaces may have a coating of the green nickel arsenate, annabergite.
Upon heating a garlic odor maybe observed due to the arsenic content.
Crystals tend to be striated.
Associated Minerals include arsenopyrite, barite, silver, annabergite, cobaltite, pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, breithauptite and maucherite.
Notable Occurrences include the Natsume nickel mine, Japan and at Mansfeld and Eisleben, Germany; Franklin, New Jersey; California and Colorado, USA; Styria, Austria; Sinaloa, Mexico; Talmessi, Anarak, Iran and at Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada; Cobalt and Sudbury, Ontario, Canada as well as some sites in England, France, Morocco, Russia and southern Australia.
Best Field Indicators are color, density, associations, streak, hardness and odor when heated.
Colors: copper-red to pink
Hardness: 5 to 5.5
Niter
Luster is vitreous.Transparency Crystals are translucent to transparent only in individual crystals.
Crystal System is orthorhombic; 2/m 2/m 2/m
Crystal Habits include crusts and acicular crystals formed as efflorescence on cave and mine walls.
Also as a constituent in arid climate soils.
Rarely forms crystals of any appreciable size but some clusters of hexagonal shaped twinned crystals are known.
Cleavage is good in two directions (prismatic).
Fracture is uneven.
Hardness is 2. Specific Gravity is approximately 2.1 (well below average)
Streak is white.
Other Characteristics: Easily soluble in water, gives a violet flame in a flame test (potassium), is slightly sectile and is nondeliquescent.
Associated Minerals calcite, dolomite and certain minerals in various arid region soils.
Notable Occurrences include the Persian Gulf states, India; Russia; Italy; Spain; northern Chile; New Mexico, Kentucky and Tennessee, USA; Egypt and Bolivia.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit if visible, solubility in water, nondeliquescent and violet flame test.
Colors: white or gray, also tinted yellow or brown by impurities
Hardness: 2
Nitratine
Luster is vitreous.Transparency crystals are translucent to transparent.
Crystal System is trigonal; bar 3 2/m
Crystal Habits include masses and soil deposits in arid and desert regions.
Crystals are rare, but when found are in the form of rhombohedrons similar to calcite's crystals.
Cleavage is perfect in three directions forming rhombohedrons.
Fracture is conchoidal.
Specific Gravity is approximately 2.2 - 2.3 (below average)
Streak is white.
Associated Minerals gypsum, halite and other arid region minerals.
Other Characteristics: Deliquescent, slightly sectile, very soluble in water and gives a yellow flame test result.
Notable Occurrences include the Tarapaca and other northern Chile sites; Bolivia; Peru and Humboldt Co., Nevada, San Bernardino Co., California and New Mexico, USA.
Best Field Indicators are crystal habit, flame test, solubility, deliquescence, hardness, occurrence and cleavage.
Colors: white or gray, sometimes with tints of red-brown or yellow
Hardness: 1.5 to 2
Norbergite
Luster is vitreous to resinous.Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent.
Crystal System: Orthorhombic; 2/m 2/m 2/m
Crystal Habits include small prismatic to rounded crystals, but as is most commonly the case, as embedded indistinct grains.
Cleavage is poor in one direction, basal.
Fracture is subconchoidal.
Specific Gravity is 3.1 - 3.2
Streak is white.
Other Characteristics: Many specimens (usually those that are of a lighter color) fluoresce a tan to yellow color under shortwave UV light.
Associated Minerals include franklinite, fluorite, pyrrhotite, spinel, tremolite, diopside, dollaseite-(Ce), chondrodite and calcite.
Notable Occurrences include the type locality of Ostanmosoa Iron Mine, Norberg, Vastmanland, Sweden (hence the name) as well as Franklin, New Jersey, USA; Kazabazua, Quebec and Bancroft, Ontario, Canada; Pargas, Finland and Mt. Vesuvius, Italy.
Best Field Indicators are color, associations, fluorescence, environment of formation and hardness.
Colors: white, yellow, tan, brown, orange or red
Hardness: 6 to 6.5
Novaculite
Novaculite is known as the "Cord Cutting Crystal."It is used psychically to cut psychic or etheric cords.
It can also be helpful for "cutting through" problems, getting past problems, and finding solutions.
Novaculite is useful for alleviating depression and despair.
Physically novaculite is helpful for healing of clinical depression, obsessive disorders, warts, and moles.
Novaculite energizes all the chakras.
Nuumite
Nuumite (also Nuummit) is a very protective stone.It can protect one from negative energy of many, many kinds by wearing or carrying the stone, and is often sought for this shielding property.
It is also helpful for removing energy blockages, and to clear the aura.
Nuumite is also good for synthesizing psychic and intuitive wisdom with intellectual thought.
Physically nuumite is used in general healing, infections, purifying blood, kidneys, insulin production regulation, eyesight, and CNS (central nervous system) disorders.
Nuumite opens and clears the heart chakra, and will also activate and integrate all the chakras.
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