Ulexite: TV Rock

     Ulexite is a colorless borate mineral that was named for the German chemist George L. Ulex. The term borate mineral refers to any mineral that contains the elements boron and oxygen in its chemical makeup. Ulexite crystals are colorless and have a vitreous luster (that means that their surfaces reflect light in the same way that glass does) Single ulexite crystals are rare; ulexite crystals are usually found growing together in nodular, rounded, or lenticular aggregations (I.e. they look like knobs, spheres, or lenses) of fibrous crystals. These aggregations can be white or cloudy, are translucent, and have a silky luster.
     Ulexite has a rather strange property in which its fibers transmit images somewhat like a television screen. If you place a piece of ulexite on top of a page of text the ulexite crystals somehow transmit the image so that it looks like the letters are sitting on top of the mineral! It will do this with any image, even three-dimensional objects. I do thing that the ulexite specimen must have its top and bottom faces polished to do this, but I do not know. Because ulexite can transfer images like this it is often called “television rock” or “TV rock.”
I know of only one use for ulexite and that is as a collectible mineral.
     Ulexite is usually found in dry places where there is a good deal of boron present. Some of the usual places where ulexite is found would be dry lakes, and marshes. Ulexite is an evaporate mineral, which means that it crystallizes as a result of evaporation, so it makes sense that it is found in dry places (where water evaporates rather quickly) Some of the best places to find Ulexite are: Nevada, California (a place that is famous for its borate minerals), Chile, and Canada’s Maritime Provinces.

     I find ulexite very interesting because it can do something that few other minerals can: namely to transmit images like a TV set. In the Bible it says that God created everyone to be different according to the tasks that He has assigned us (Check out 1Corinthians chapter 12) It appears that the same is true with minerals.