Ihalainen lime stone quarry, Lappeenranta, Finland

DESCRIPTION

GEOLOGY

VISITS

1997-06-27
Hot hot hot and dry. The sun was shining on a group of amateur geologists as they emerged from the elevator shaft at 90m deep. The quarry is a open cast mine and the sun was shining down on us from a deep blue sky. It was still about 30m downhill before we were at the bottom of the quarry.
I think that the white calcite all around us was helping the sun to bake us until we were totally dried up. All right, I think you got the picture of the heat. The sight was wonderful, as the sun shined on the white calcite, veins of blue and pink talc

Mineral assemblage

Calcite, Dolomite, Quartz, Olivine, Klinohumite, Grossular, Zircon, Thorite, Titanite, Vesuvianite, Epidote, Klinozoisite, Prehnite, Beryl, Diopside, Tremolite, Hastingsite, Cummingtonite, Wollastonite, Pectolite, Talk, Chrysotile, Lizardite, Fluorapophyllite, Muskovite, Biotite, Chlinoclor, Flogopite, Various feldspars, Various phosphates, Baryte, Graphite, Various sulphides, Fluorite, various oxides : Spinell, Hematite, Ilmenite, Rutile.

Calcite
A large portion of the calcite mined in Ihalainen have a bluish hue. This is a small sample (5 cm) of this calcite. I have a larger one in my bookshelf as a book end.
The calcite is very coarse grained.
Collected 1997-06-27
(300 dpi, 800x600, k)

Calcite
This calcite have a surface of yellow-brown crystals. The main attraction of this stone is not the crystals, they are damaged and small, but it's very bright fluorescense in yellow, contrary to the host rocks weakly bluish shine. I will add a picture of it in UV later.
Collected 1997-06-27
(300 dpi, 800x600, k)

Talc
The talc at Ihalainen occurs in veins in the calcite. It is colored blue or pink and makes it a wonderful sight when the sun is shining.
This sample (20x7 cm) shows two veins in calcite, sadly it looses a lot of it's color when it dries up.
Collected 1997-06-27
(100 dpi, 800x600, k)

Talc
This is a small sample (10 cm) of a thin pink colored talc vein in calcite.
Collected 1997-06-27
(150 dpi, 800x600, k)

Wollastonite
One other product from Ihalainen is wollastonite. The calcite contains up to 25% wollastonite in some parts of the quarry.
What do you get when you mix quartz and calcite? Yes wollastonite. This is a schoolbook example of that. A quartz vein in calcite. From the top we have calcite, wollastonite quartz, wollastonite and calcite.
Collected 1997-06-27
15x7 cm. (120 dpi, 800x600, k)

Humite
A vein of humite is running straight through this rock. The rest of the rock consists of calcite and some serpentine to the right.
Collected 1997-06-27
(300 dpi, 800x600, k)

If you have some questions, suggestions or comments you are welcome to write me a line or two.

Locality index. Main index.

axelsson@acc.umu.se

	Calcite A large portion of the calcite mined in Ihalainen have a bluish hue. This is a small sample (5 cm) of this calcite. I have a larger one in my bookshelf as a book end. The calcite is very coarse grained. Collected 1997-06-27 (300 dpi, 800x600, k)
	Calcite This calcite have a surface of yellow-brown crystals. The main attraction of this stone is not the crystals, they are damaged and small, but it's very bright fluorescense in yellow, contrary to the host rocks weakly bluish shine. I will add a picture of it in UV later. Collected 1997-06-27 (300 dpi, 800x600, k)
	Talc The talc at Ihalainen occurs in veins in the calcite. It is colored blue or pink and makes it a wonderful sight when the sun is shining. This sample (20x7 cm) shows two veins in calcite, sadly it looses a lot of it's color when it dries up. Collected 1997-06-27 (100 dpi, 800x600, k)
	Talc This is a small sample (10 cm) of a thin pink colored talc vein in calcite. Collected 1997-06-27 (150 dpi, 800x600, k)
	Wollastonite One other product from Ihalainen is wollastonite. The calcite contains up to 25% wollastonite in some parts of the quarry. What do you get when you mix quartz and calcite? Yes wollastonite. This is a schoolbook example of that. A quartz vein in calcite. From the top we have calcite, wollastonite quartz, wollastonite and calcite. Collected 1997-06-27 15x7 cm. (120 dpi, 800x600, k)
	Humite A vein of humite is running straight through this rock. The rest of the rock consists of calcite and some serpentine to the right. Collected 1997-06-27 (300 dpi, 800x600, k)