jasong Posted May 12, 2023 Share Posted May 12, 2023 Can't miss that red glow... Granted this one is tiny and not really gem color. Was storing some samples and checking them out in the microscope first, and decided to run the UVBeast flashlight over them. This one came from a place with no known ruby occurences, didn't expect to see this turn up. It could also be spinel, but no known occurences of that where this came from either. Might be worth running a UV light over panning/sluicing concentrates for people that have them. Never know what you might find... 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim in Idaho Posted May 12, 2023 Share Posted May 12, 2023 That is super interesting, Jason. A few years ago, while diamond prospecting in the Green River Basin, I found an identical gem. It was tiny, and pink in natural light, but brilliant, and I mean brilliant red under short wave UV light. Yours is the only other one I've seen. I had decided mine was either ruby, or a grossular garnet, though I leaned toward garnet. You made my day posting that. I wish we could figure out the source location. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim in Idaho Posted May 12, 2023 Share Posted May 12, 2023 Hey Jason. Here's a couple of pics of mine. It's only about 1/8" in diameter. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasong Posted May 12, 2023 Author Share Posted May 12, 2023 Interesting Jim...yes mine came from Wyoming too, though not from any of the diamond areas in the Green River basin. I can't quite say where this one came from yet, but I hope to be able to write a bit more about it in the future as there are some other pretty interesting things associated with it. Yours is an interesting one though...pictures can be deceiving so maybe I'm not looking at it right, but it appears to have a semi-defined hexagonal form? If so, I would lean more corundum - probably ruby - than garnet. I don't think garnet fluoresces under UV much either. I think you got an interesting one there...it's more gemmy than mine is too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim in Idaho Posted May 12, 2023 Share Posted May 12, 2023 Yeah...I noticed the hex in the pics, too. Don't know why I didn't notice that before. The Grossular garnets are the only ones that fluoresce, and I'm not sure all the colors of them fluoresce. I'm thinking tsavorite grossulars don't. I need to look that up. I'm thinking, because of the nearly identical colors, that both of our gems may have come from the same source. Hausel mentioned a creek in the Wind River range that had rubies. I forgot to post this, so after some research it looks like the only grossular garnets that fluoresce are from Quebec, and Tanzania, and are clear under natural light, so mine probably is a ruby....COOL!..Thanks, Jason. Now I need to go down in the gem room, and try to find it....LOL Jim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calarms Posted May 12, 2023 Share Posted May 12, 2023 What wavelength UV light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasong Posted May 13, 2023 Author Share Posted May 13, 2023 35 minutes ago, Calarms said: What wavelength UV light The one I used in my pic is 365nm. 1 hour ago, Jim in Idaho said: Yeah...I noticed the hex in the pics, too. Don't know why I didn't notice that before. The Grossular garnets are the only ones that fluoresce, and I'm not sure all the colors of them fluoresce. I'm thinking tsavorite grossulars don't. I need to look that up. I'm thinking, because of the nearly identical colors, that both of our gems may have come from the same source. Hausel mentioned a creek in the Wind River range that had rubies. I forgot to post this, so after some research it looks like the only grossular garnets that fluoresce are from Quebec, and Tanzania, and are clear under natural light, so mine probably is a ruby....COOL!..Thanks, Jason. Now I need to go down in the gem room, and try to find it....LOL Jim Yours is about the most gemmy one I've seen from Wyoming, probably worth prospecting for a lode source on that. Most the WY rubies I've found or seen have been very low quality - shattered and bad color. This UV flashlight I have is crazy powerful, I'm going to take it camping this summer and do a few night scouting trips just out of curiosity. That red stands out so starkly it seems if there were rubies around they'd be pretty easy to spot. It's easy to tell the difference between that red and the reds from calcite. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim in Idaho Posted May 13, 2023 Share Posted May 13, 2023 Sadly, Jason, I don't remember how I found that. Might have been simply visually, or running the jig, or using the saruca, or possibly while surveying anthills, of which I did about 600. I know, within a few miles, where I found it, however. But, I've never seen another one until your post. I use both a "Way TOO Cool" brand 18 watt UV light that has both long wave and short wave. Each light is 18 watts, but it draws considerable power.....about 4 amps with both bulbs on. The other I have is a mini-flashlight that is longwave only. It has an LED bulb. Unfortunately, they've yet to figure out an LED light that produces true shortwave UV light. The good thing for us is most gems that fluoresce do so in long wave, or stronger in LW, including rubies. Unfortunately for me, I'm in the 30% of the population that gets sick from using a UV light. I wear goggles that help, but even then I can only go about an hour, or a little more before getting nauseous. After your post, you can bet I'm going to be looking at the jig tailings under a UV light before throwing them out. Jim 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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