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Article: THE MINERALS OF ALUM CAVE BLUFF GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, TENNESSEE.
- Article from:
- The Mineralogical Record
- Article date:
- March 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 The Mineralogical, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Alum Cave Bluff, a Dana locality for apjohnite, epsomite, melanterite and potash alum, has yielded good microcrystals of several rare sulfate minerals, including three new rare-earth sulfates, and is the first North American occurrence of slavikite.
INTRODUCTION
Alum Cave Bluff in the Great Smoky Mountains must be considered a classic locality, inasmuch as Dana's System (Palache et al., 1951; Dana, 1892) lists four unusual minerals (potash alum, epsomite, melanterite and apjohnite) from "Alum Cave." The locality was studied during the 1800's (Brown, 1884); however, the authors have found no record of any studies during this century, and a revisit for a ...