Apatite
derives from the Greek word apate or apaptos, what means "to deceive"
because the apatites stones were often entangled and interchanged with other
minerals. Apatite is a stone that comes in many colors; from blue/green, to yellow/purple
and crème white. A colorless variant of Apatite has been excavated near
Tavistock, Devonshire.
Apatite can
be found all over the world. In North America it is found mostly around the Central
Metasedimentary Belt which is located in Ontario, near the Great lakes. Apatite
is also found in East Africa, South America, Europe and Russia, where they understood
the importance of the mineral for the area that they gave a town the same name:
The town of Apatity is located in the center of the Kola Peninsula, 100 miles
south of city of Murmansk. It was founded in 1935 and has according to recent
counts around the 60.000 inhabitants.
The story
goes that a 500 pound apatite mineral was shipped from America to Europe for an
exposition in Paris in 1878. It was said that the mineral was originally
larger, but the captain of the ship considered that it took to much space in
the ship hold, so he ordered to cut the mineral in smaller pieces.
I personally
think that the most beautiful Apatite is colored Blue. Most of the blue Apatite
is recognizable of its fascinating patterns and its enchanting blue to green
shade.
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