| Specimen Notes
Occurrance - The Kasolite occurs on a substrate of Aragonite, which in turn is on a silicate host rock. In other specimens, it also occurs directly on silicate rock. This makes Kasolite very 'friendly' in its occurance, as it seems to have no preference toward either silicate or calcium carbonate. This does not contradict the hot radicals theory of Uranyl minerals occurance.
Images 001a and 001b show that the Kasolite is on a substrate of Calcite. That the Calcite is in turn on what appears to be an Aragonite substrate is best seen in cross section in image 001d. This suggests that Kasolite crystals form best under conditions that also form Calcite.
Crystals - The Kasolite occurs in two forms on this specimen: crystals and sub-microcrystals. The sub-microcrystals appear as a fluffy flocking on Cuprosklodowskite crystals. The crystals occur as as independant crystals or clusters of a few crystals, and as rosettes.
The clusters of a few crystals tend to roughly orient themselves to each other, so that they may appear to be loosely stacked with their [010] faces nearly parallel. This does not seem to affect other stacks that are near by. This habit is easily seen in image 001d.
The rosettes are many stacked clusters of crystals that radiate from a common center. The individual stacks appear random in their relationship to each other, other than having a common center, though their occurance will affect the linearity and duration of stacks within the rosettes. Images 001a and 001b best show the structure of these rosettes. The crystals in the rosettes also appear to have the opposite form of two-tone diaphaneity than those not in rosettes.
The thickness of the crystals on this specimen are often approaching half their width.
Diaphaneity - Many unclustered crystals have an appearance of a dense, transparent outer area that has formed on a less dense, translucent inner core. The transparent area occurs most obviously at the termination of the crystals. Image 001c gives an excellent example of this crystal habit. This habit of transparent material on a translucent core is believed to be characteristic of Kasolite, as it has not been seen in other uranium minerals.
As seen in image 001a, the rosettes that have been broken open show a different two-tone diaphaneity. The crystals at the center of the rosette are darker and more translucent than their outer areas, which are both lighter in color and less diaphanous. It is not certain what this difference between the crystals in rosettes and small clusters means. It is believed that they may have been formed at different times with different conditions. The more transparent material may have been formed more slowly, giving time for faults in the crystal structure to be healed.
Luster - The luster is more adamantine than greasy. The internal 'luster' from the boundry between the transparent material and the translucent core approaches a silky luster.
The translucent crystals of the rosettes are of an 'earthy' appearence unless the light reflection(s) can be seen.
Co-deposition with Cuprosklodowskite - The Kasolite that occurs on the radial crystals of Cuprosklodowskite appear to have been co-deposited with the Cuprosklodowskite during the early stages of their forming. As the termination ends of the Cuprosklodowskite are nearly free of Kasolite, it is believed that the Cuprosklodowskite continued to form for a period after the Kasolite ceased forming. This is consistent with the observation that Cuprosklodowskite grows primarily from its terminations (see Cuprosklodowskite).
This co-deposition of Kasolite and Cuprosklodowskite indicates that the mother liqure from which they formed contained both copper and lead cations. As they are both silicates, the lead went into the formation of Kasolite, while the copper went into the formation of Cuprosklodowskite. This seperation of cations by co-crystalization can have interesting implications for the formation of other minerals.
Specimen Physical Properties
| Size |
cm |
cm |
cm |
| Weight: |
52.62 grams |
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| g-Radiation Level: |
351 cmp |
35.1 msieverts |
background: 20 cpm |
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