Natures Rainbows - Fluorescent Minerals, Rocks, Luminescence, Fluorescence, and UV Lights

Fluorescent minerals are often called "Glow Rocks". They glow, or fluoresce, under ultraviolet light and emit longer wavelength visible light (Stoke's shift). Invisible UV light from ordinary black lights, LW LEDs, or shortwave mineral lights cause this fluorescence (also called luminescence).

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Typical fluorescent minerals include: aragonite, apatite, calcite, fluorite, powellite, scheelite, sodalite, willemite, and zircon. But almost any mineral can "glow" under UV light with the right conditions. Most pure minerals do not fluoresce  (certain minerals such as scheelite are exceptions). Mineral impurities, called "activators", cause a mineral to fluoresce. Different activators, in varying quantities, along with other impurities (quenchers, such as iron) can make the same mineral fluoresce in different colors, or even not fluoresce at all. The amount/type of activators and quenchers in a mineral usually determines the fluorescent color and brightness. Read more.....

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Most mineral collectors are familiar with nature's more common "hidden rainbows" of fluorescent color - But there are hundreds of lesser known species. Nature's Rainbows is all about these fluorescent minerals and their properties.