Vote for your favorite mineral in #MinCup26! - Sphalerite vs. Anorthite Both zinc ore Sphalerite and calcium plagioclase feldspar Anorthite have perfect cleavage that will split cleanly if you hit them with a hammer, but only one can claim a larger split of your votes!
Mostly massive, cherty looking with conchoidal fracture, hundreds of pounds have been recovered; the small crystals, which range from microscopic up to a half of an inch in diameter, are of a brighter orange-red color. Most of the small crystals show the trapezohedron as the dominant crystal form modified by the hexoctahedron. Some show the trapezohedron modified by both the hexoctahedron and the dodecahedron. Associated with quartz, bustamite-pyroxmangite-alleghanyite, tephroite, actinolite. Confirmed as spessartine using XRD, XRF and Raman spectroscopy. One of the few bona-fide spessartine localities in Connecticut.
Habit:
trapezohedral modified by the hexoctahedron and dodecahedron
Jail Hill Road locality, Haddam, Middlesex County, Connecticut, USA