In 1930 men from Kunoy were herding sheep in the Northern part of Kunoy when one of them found something round sticking up from the grass like a puffin egg. They soon realized that this was not a puffin egg, but part of a larger piece of mineral buried in the soil. They excavated the piece and managed to carry it back home to the village of Kunoy. It was washed and put for display in the living room at Hannemia and Jens Juel Sólbjørg house in Klaksvík.
In 2015 the beautiful piece of chalcedony was donated to the geological collections of Jarðfeingi.
The “puffin egg” turned out to be part of a larger mineral buried in the soil.
The place where the specimen was found on the northern part of Kunoy.
About chalcedony
While Calcedone is a common mineral in the Faroe Islands, it is very rare to find so large pieces of such beauty. The mineral is dim and grey, sometimes with shades of blue. Chalcedony is a microcrystalline type of the quartz. It is fine porous and therefore it is possible to see chalcedony in different colors. Agate, onyx, carnelian and jasper are variants of chalcedony. Typically, chalcedony is found in cracks and pores in the basalt.
The round shape of the mineral is formed because the mineral is precipitated around small grains of sand in the crack where the zeolite is found. If the cooling occurs fast, many small crystals will form, but if the cooling occurs slowly, fewer and larger crystals will form.
This exact sample is part of a mineral that has been much larger.
Chalcedony is not a valuable mineral but is still used as gemstones for jewelry.
Gifts to the geological collections at Jarðfeingi
Jarðfeingi has the responsibility to collect rocks and minerals for the geological collections at Jarðfeingi. Many thousand items are collected the past 200 years and can be found in the geological archives at Jarfeingi. A part of the samples can be seen at the geological exhibition at the national museum in Hoyvík.
Most of the samples are collected as part of the geological work in the Faroe Islands. A part of them are gifts from people to the geological collections. We are grateful for this.
New regulations can strengthen the geological collections
Jarðfeingi has according to the law on georesources on behalf of the government the responsibility to collect rocks and minerals for the geological collections at Jarðfeingi.
Based on this law work is going on to establish new regulation, which will benefit the collection for the geological collections.
Everyone is invited to participate in building up the Faroese rocks and mineral collection. People who which to report special mineral sand rocks found in the Faroe Islands are invited to report this way:
- Photo of the specimen
- Name of person who collected the specimen
- Telephone number if we need to ask for more information
- Date when the specimen was collected
- Locality where the specimen was collected
- Additional information
Send to jardfeingi@jardfeingi.fo
If Jarðfeingi based on the image evaluates that the specimen may be interesting for the geological collection at Jarðfeingi, we will send a message and ask to look closer at the specimen.
