Flourescent Minerals

The rocks which come out of the Purple Passion mine north of Phoenix, Arizona are a good example of fluorescent minerals which glow completely differently depending upon what wavelength of UV light illuminates them.

The fluorite glows purple when illuminated with long wave UV light.

In this sample of calcite, different portions of the rock fluoresce when it is illuminated with short wave UV light having a wavelength of 254 nanometers or when it is seen under medium wave UV light with a wavelength of 312 nm.
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