Vietnamese Zeolites!

Minerals from Vietnam have always been somewhat limited to gem species— Luc Yen has long been known for its rubies and spinel (with the odd collector specimen of clinohumite or pargasite), and in recent years there has been an abundance of aquamarine from Nghe An.  

Here is something completely different though: zeolites. 

Good examples of zeolite minerals are actually not that common worldwide— the things is, India has produced examples in such abundance and quality, that I would say it has cheapened this entire mineral group’s image.  But if you think about it, how many other places produce zeolites in such abundance?  The New Jersey traprock is a very distant second in terms of quality (I’m sure this offends a couple people), the various locations in Nova Scotia are probably third— and rarely do any of the encountered species at either location reach the heights of quality found in India.  Everywhere else—Oregon, Scotland, etc. usually just has gas bubbles in basalt with some nondescript small, orange/white crystals…. (EDIT: after I posted this, I was sent a link to the Mindat page for the Skookumchuk Dam in Washington, and those zeolites are nothing short of impressive, but to my earlier point on zeolite rarity those came out 50-60 years ago)

Which brings me to these Viet scolecites… I first started seeing these about 2 years ago, usually heavily damaged and offered as large, Chinese-style decorator pieces — in fact, a few of these were chopped down from carvings that included floral designs and pedestals carved into the basalt matrix. 

Good acicular clusters *on matrix* of this delicate material are notoriously difficult to get even from India, because they are always crushed—I would know, because I always keep an eye out for them, despite not being a huge fan of Indian minerals.  Most of the Viet examples get destroyed as well, but I had particular luck finding examples where the clusters were relatively protected.