Heulandite: The Coffin Mineral

First off please allow me to appologize for the delay. I have been working on other projects a lot lately and haven't found the time to keep this blog up-dated. Also please forgive the brevity of this post. Again this is due to my lack of time.

The zeolite mineral heulandite was named for John Henry Heuland, an English mineral dealer. It is one of the most common zeolites--a family of silicate minerals. Heulandite is often coral-pink, but it can also be brown, white or red. It has either a pearly or vitreous luster and a Mohs hardness of 3.5 to 4.

Heulandite’s crystals are an oddity among minerals. If they are not altered by a natural processes then they will be shaped like the coffins from Western movies. These crystals can be distorted during their formation, which causes them to look differently.

Heulandite can be used for the myriad of purposes that many other zeolites serve. It has no use in the jewelry industry, but collectors like me love to collect it!

Heulandite is found in basalt like many of its fellow zeolites. Sources of the mineral include: India, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the American states of Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and New Jersey.