Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Fluorescent Oceanic Sea Shell

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Fairly often one sees nice fluorescence in stalagtites and stalagmites in caves, as well as in coral, star fish, and sea shells.
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All of these have calcium carbonate in their makeup which is also called calcite or aragonite.

If it has just the correct trace amount of manganese in it this calcite will glow a really nice red under fluorescent lighting. It is not uncommon for the white calcite to develop a little bit of a pink colour. It is frequently referred to as manganocalcite.

This is an oceanic sea shell that is called Mapa Mapa in Belgium. Its official scientific name is Cypraea Arabica or an Arabian Cowrie.
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The composite picture at the top right is mine, all the other ones below are pics that I found on the internet.

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