Acta Musei Moraviae

Zeolite mineralization from the Zámecký vrch hill near Česká Kamenice (Czech Republic)

Several occurrences of zeolite mineralization were found on the slopes of the Zámecký vrch hill (540 m a.s.l.), 1.5 km southeast of Česká Kamenice (nothern Bohemia, Czech Republic). The main locality is located on the eastern slope, others on the western and southern slopes. The zeolite mineralization with fluorapophyllite-(K) is associated with hollow basaltoid rocks, or rather their tuffs and pyroclastic breccias that penetrated Upper Cretaceous claystones and marlites. A diverse spectrum of 14 zeolites species was found in the cavities (analcime, cowlesite, erionite-Ca, erionite-K, gismondine-Ca, gmelinite-Ca, gonnardite, chabazite-Ca, chabazite-K, lévyne-Ca, natrolite, offretite, phillipsite-Ca, thomsonite-Ca). The most interesting is gmelinite-Ca, this is the second confirmed occurrence of this mineral in the Czech Republic. Although a number of zeolite occurrences is known in the vicinity of Česká Kamenice, the Zámecký vrch hill is a newly discovered locality, which has not been mentioned in the literature. The descriptions, WDS quantitative analyses, X-ray powder patterns, and refined unit cell parameters are given for all described mineral phases.