ICICLE like transparent to translucent ARAGONITE STALACTITE - Height: 13.4 cm - Width: 8.1 cm- 338 g - (1)

This piece comes from the most recent pocket producing this kind of cave aragonites discovered in the Santa Eulalia mining district. I am unaware of how much material this pocket actually produced, but what I do know is that there has only been one smaller pocket with quality close to this one and only another one that surpassed it, the “icicle pocket” in which almost all the aragonites were completely crystal clear. This one is not quite there in terms of general transparency, but it is very good quality comparing it to other examples from the same find, as it shows a very characteristic arborescent shape formed out of countless notably large and complex aragonite crystals which appear as simple spiky prisms with rounded surfaces that show an incredible glassy lustre and appear on their own or forming “butterfly twin” like macles. Curiously the transparency on this specimen appears gradated going from milky white at the base to fully transparent at the tips indicating that this were probably formed as a result of a sudden change in the physico-chemical conditions of the pocket rather than the usual formation by slow precipitation usually seen in other cave speleothemes.
The piece is in very good condition, only having a tiny bruise/break close to the base and being broken at the base where it probably was attached to the pocket wall.