Hydrozincite in White Light Sterling Mine Ogdensburg NJ
A famous locality of this mineral is Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey. Zinc ore was barged across this lake on its way to be smelted for production from the mines at Franklin and Ogdensburg. Over the years, much zinc ore fell into the lake. The water caused one of the ores, Zincite, to alter to Hydrozincite. When the lake was temporarily drained for environmental reasons, many fine Hydrozincite specimens were found on the bed of the lake. Hydrozincite is popular among fluorescent mineral collectors due to its strong fluorescence. It is used as an ore of zinc if found in areas where an abundance of zinc minerals are present. Fluorescence is a luminescence that is mostly found as an optical phenomenon in cold bodies, in which the molecular absorption of a photon triggers the emission of a photon with a longer (less energetic) wavelength. The energy difference between the absorbed and emitted photons ends up as molecular rotations, vibrations or heat. Sometimes the absorbed photon is in the ultraviolet range, and the emitted light is in the visible range, but this depends on the absorbance curve and Stokes shift of the particular fluorophore.
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Keywords: crystal, crystalline, fluorescent, fluorescing, geology, hydrozincite, jersey, light, mineral, minerals, nj, ogdensburg, rock, rocks, specimen, sterling, uv, viewed, white
