UV fossil coral from Tampa Florida

[Gregcohen]

The following are some fossils I found by Tampa Bay Florida.  I'm not really looking for info on the low grade fossils.  I was hoping for help determining the red /orange mineral under shortwave 254nm UV light that does not show up using 365nm longwave.  White or off white under white light.  The last picture are slices to show it can run through the piece of rock. 

[Gregcohen]

Fyi, figured I'd add some normal agatized coral under UV for reference too.  I'm guessing the organic remnants from the polyps 22-26 million years ago got embedded as the coral or hole it left silicified or agatized.  These seem to be yellow, blue, and green normally.  10-15% of the nicer botryoidal and druzy are Fluorescent I've collected.

[ynot]

calcite can be red to orange/yellow.

There are many minerals that produce other colors, find a color chart for Florissant minerals and chose the most likely.

[Gregcohen]

Some were in muriatic acid for cleaning.  Also not the color in the area for calcite (yellow).  I was hoping someone could direct me to a color chart that would also reference location and 254nm but not 365nm for red or red/orange.

 

Calcite also glows in 365nm UV longwave.  If your replying you should know that.  I do admit sometimes a camera sees the yellow as white.  But still reacts.  Biologic material glows under both too.  So looking for a mineral.

 

No one locally like lapidary club has ever seen this type so looking for expert or direction to a chart.  Of course not many have see or acknowledged even the normal ones exists.  

 

I thought I'd try this site.  But if you can not provide info or at least a general link.  Please do not answer.

[Gregcohen]

Fyi this is one that was cleaned in Muriatic to free the coral from limestone.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

6 hours ago, Gregcohen said:

I thought I'd try this site.  But if you can not provide info or at least a general link.  Please do not answer.

You will note that I do not give you a link but that I answer anyway...

 

@ynot's answer is very relevant. I would even add that calcite can also have a pink color under UV rays, its color palette is very extensive.

 

Please feel free to courteously address the members of this forum which brings together a large number of professional paleontologists and very knowledgeable amateurs, some of whom have more than 40 or 50 years of experience !

 

Coco

[Tidgy's Dad]

8 hours ago, Gregcohen said:

If your replying you should know that. I thought I'd try this site. 

But if you can not provide info or at least a general link.  Please do not answer.

This is just plain insulting. 

Please try to be courteous, this is not Reddit. 

[daves64]

And a simple search on Google can lead to things like this. https://uvminerals.org/minerals/common-fluorescent-minerals/ But that's just me, I like searching for things on my own, then asking elsewhere if I can't find what I'm looking for.

[Gregcohen]

Thank you for the link.  I previously did Google searches found that link.  Actually contacted them.  They did not know the Tampa Area but gave a the link to a local store in Orlando who may be familiar with the area (who sell UV lights).  Sent them an email got no response.  So thought I'd try the experts at The Fossil forum.  Forgot to previously add some were cleaned in Muriatic acid, because I frequently remove limestone and calcite from around agatized corals and shells, but also have not seen anything that mentions calcite that is florescent under 254nm and not 365nm.  

 

Was looking for someone like the fossil forum talks about who would be a local expert with UV experience.  It's an odd subject so no issue if you do not know.

 

I have not found any charts online with frequency 254nm versus 365nm or short versus longwave.  So assume it would be in a geology book or paper I'm not aware of by searching in Google.  

 

I read a bunch of article about how Yooperlites were discovered in 2017.  With the new excitement around that was trying to figure out if what I found was a normal mineral a geologist would know about from the area or just something not normally seen since shortwave hunting is not the usual option as Yooperlites are seen only under longwave and longwave flashlights are one forth the price and much stronger and better for hunting.

 

If no one has seen it on the fossil forum maybe they could advise me of a geologist in the Tampa are I could contact and bring a sample too, or even a store with someone knowledgeable who might recognize it in person.  I had posted on here before.  Hunted down contacts who took awhile to find and email for and got responses from.  I posted that for info here and then everyone said they new that person.  So thought could get the name, college, or site from the fossil forum if they had no idea what it was.  Instead of naming something I a novice already rulled out.  

 

Does calcite have any type that glow red under shortwave but have no reaction to longwave?

[Gregcohen]

Never mind finally found the list.  54 pages of shortwave, longwave, location based data.

 

Aragonite would fit this shortwave only red does not disolve in acid unless on limestone base which some is. But most on chert.

 

Took two weeks of looking online using different search methods, but finally came up with a data base.  Even if not listed for Florida.  There is known aragonite in the area.  So fits.

http://crlc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Fluorescent-Mineral-Database-1.pdf

 

[Gregcohen]

The expert weighed in so my guess was wrong based on the above link PDF list.

 

The Tampa Bay agatized corals are often fluorescent. The fluorescence is most likely caused by (very small amounts of) uranium and Radium. The rocks that these were buried in are phosphatic and that is the source of the radionuclides. I know that some types of opal will fluoresce under various UV wavelengths. Since these agates often have some opalized silica component (not precious opal, so not very valuable), that likely explains the fluorescence.

 

STATEMAP Program Manager

Office of the Florida Geological Survey

Department of Environmental Protection