Chabazite, Apophyllite, Calcite

A fine miniature quartz plate featuring many lustrous peach-pink chabazite crystals from the famous, now-extinct New Street traprock quarry in New Jersey. The translucent chabazite crystals—measuring up to 3 mm—are attractively scattered across a sparkling quartz druse surface. A colourless apophyllite crystal is present on the left side of the specimen. On the reverse, several modified rhombohedral calcite crystals sit atop quartz on matrix. The New Street Quarry, opened in 1893, was a prolific zeolite locality for over a century. Notably, during the mid-1980s through the early 1990s, intensive collecting occurred at both the Upper and nearby Lower New Street Quarries, yielding some of the finest New Jersey traprock mineral specimens known.

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This specimen comes from the collection of Dr. Peter Tarassoff, a prominent figure in mineralogy, particularly known for his work at Mont Saint-Hilaire (MSH). His diligent collecting and examination efforts have led him to be the first to identify at least 35 species and discover 12 new species, not only at MSH but also at other alkaline localities. Dubbed the "Dean" of Mont Saint-Hilaire collectors, Peter was honoured with the naming of the new species petarasite in 1980. He has authored or co-authored numerous mineralogical articles and has been a member of the Mineralogical Association of Canada since 1964. Additionally, Peter has volunteered at the Redpath Museum for the past 21 years, where he was formally appointed the Honorary Curator of Mineralogy. In recognition of his significant contributions to mineralogy, Peter was awarded the 2017 Pinch Medal.