I recently acquired a batch of green Afghan spodumene via Bangkok. After a few days I noticed it had started fading in color, which suggests it was likely irradiated to reach the color. So I decided to run this experiment to see how fast the color would change under exposure from sunlight.
Specimen started out a bit richer than this:
Specimen started out a bit richer than this:
After an hour under the Texas sun, you can see the green is fading to clear:
The following day, after a few hours of indirect sunlight (my current location only gets about 2 hours of good sun):
After 3 more hours of indirect sun, I started noticing some pink an purple:
After another hour of direct sun, its definitely taking on some purple/pink.
After another hour of sun (roughly 4 hours total sunlight, 6 hours indirect):
We shall see how purple I can get this crystal just via sunlight. Here's a view down the C-Axis.
Spodumene is fun stuff!
-YvW
The pink is looking good! More suntan please!
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