FIBROUS BLUE HALITE - A beautiful blue variety of halite (rock salt) from France

FIBROUS BLUE HALITE

A beautiful blue, fibrous variety
of halite (rock salt)

Salt deposit, Mulhouse, Alsace, France

Natural halite (sodium chloride) is known as an ‘evaporite’ mineral as it has been formed from the evaporation of lakes or seas in prehistoric times.

This very unusual example of halite is from the Mulhouse Basin, the southernmost of several evaporite basins that occupy the Rhine Graben. The Rhine Graben is a 150 kilometre long rift in the Earth's crust that straddles the border between France and Germany.

These evaporites date from the Oligocene period and their total thickness exceeds 1,500 metres.

This is a lovely specimen, only slightly marred by a scratch on the surface on one side.

Please note: Salt is naturally hygroscopic, in other words it can absorb moisture from the atmosphere. Please keep this specimen dry to prolong its life. Under no circumstances should it be washed!

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