ZEOLITES from Dolomites

If you have never been on the Dolomites, believe me, you are really missing something astonishing ! this mountains are on the north-eastern part of Italy, in the Trentino Alto Adige region. Here the cultural root are very peculiar, the people speak fluent german and italian. This is due to the many years of austrian and/or german occupation during the 18th and 19th century. The area where I have been (for several summers in a row!) is in the Val Gardena and Siusi Alp areas. These are two of the most famous areas of the dolomites. In fact Val Gardena is a wonderful ski resort where every year some of the ski races of the World Ski Championship take place.

The landscapes are really beautiful, wonderful mountains higher than 3000 m (9000 feet, more or less). The photo on the right shows the twins Sasso Lungo (left) and the Sasso Piatto (right) mountains. They stand on the north of the Siusi Alp, a wonderful area characterized by pine trees and green grass with a lot of cows wondering around and eating peacefully.

The Siusi Alp is a plain at 1800 meters of hight, limited at north by the Sasso Lungo and Sasso Piatto elevations and on the south/south-east by the Sciliar mountain (see the photo below). The Sciliar has been known till the very beginning of human hystory since prehystoric people were used to make sacrifices (also humans!) on the very top of this mountain.

The Sasso Lungo (left) and Sasso Piatto (right) mountains. Their names
mean Long Rock and Plate Rock, respectively.

The Sciliar limits the Siusi Alp on the south/south-east side.

The people of this area live in a complete symbiosis with the mountains, they love their land and respect whatever nature might offer them. The colors of the flowers are incredible and are all around !

The cultural background of this people comes out whenever there is the chance to show their traditions. You can see this from this very special kind of trumpets, more or less 3,5 metres long (13 feet, more or less!).

Nothing to say about the food ... incredibly delicious ! I gained 2 kgs despite to the fact that I walked every day for at least 4-5 hours and worked on rocks for a couple of hours more !

Sometimes the rocks show the shape of the vulcanic flows,
one over the other, as in this photo.

From a geological point of view the Siusi Alp is very particular. In fact all this area "once upon a time" was a sea. The tectonic movements during the Triassic period made the land emerge under the power of and incredible vulcanic activity.

Within few centuries, all the area changed: from a calm sea, the landscape moved to an incredible amount of vulcanos, erupting everywhere and pushing the carbonatic formations making it emerge from the sea so that to form the Dolomite mountains such as the Sciliar and the Sasso Lungo and Sasso Piatto. The Siusi Alp was formed in those days by the enormous amount of lava. This is clear when looking where the rivers flows, and you can see this from these photos.

The area is very rich of minerals, mainly of silicates such as quartz and a lot of zeolites. The rocks are all dark, almost black basalt, in some cases partly corrupted by water and ice.

The best place where to look for minerals are the small mountain rivers and this is what I have done for almost a week. It has been an incredible experience wondering all the day along the rivers, sometimes falling inside the water (completely dressed!) or just putting a boot inside a pool of water. Anyway, I have searched a lot, and a lot of specimens are now under cleaning in my garage. The rocks I have found are from the Rio Freddo and from some other small rivers that go through the Siusi Alp.

The river traced its bed in a narrow valley, crossing the typical
vulcanic rocks of the area

This is the typical rivers on Siusi Alp

The typical species from this area are analcime, apophyllite, chabasite, calcite, quartz (alsp amethyst!) and natrolite (the pink one!). Do not think that these minerals are as showy as the ones from India ! the geological characteristics are completely different and these make the chance to get real nice crystals not so easy. However something really nice has been found it will be available for you in few days ! I am working on photos just in these days !

Along the rivers you might find rock like this:

A vein filled by apophyllite (white) and analcime (pink) crystals inside a large lavic block of more than 1 meter wide, partly sunk in the water !

The search for minerals has been done along strems and rivers as these.You have to look all rocks,
especially those with clear signs of mineralization (white or red veins)

... and this is what you might find ! a very nice geode of 4x3.5 cm filled by chabasite and with a white, perfectly terminated analcime crystal around 1 cm !