Take a look at the rock pictured here. At first glance, this syenite specimen appears like any other stone on the ground, but under the application of UV light, something incredible happens. The sodalite embedded in the rock glows a fiery orange, transforming this regular-looking stone into an all-natural lightshow.

These Shining Syenite specimens are available in small (.75" - 1.25") and large (1.25" - 1.5") size. Each will arrive with a small informational card that serves as certificate of authenticity.

To get the most out of your Shining Syenite specimen, make sure to use 365nm wavelength UV light! We've found a flashlight that works great with these stones available here (U.S. shipping only). Under this light, your syenite specimen will glow an otherworldly orange.

Looking for a bit of Halloween ambience to round out the spooky season? This is the perfect specimen for you!

Sodalite-rich syenite is a unique stone found on the shores of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where it exhibits incredible fluorescence. Despite its discovery in the U.S., its origin comes from the other side of Lake Superior. Across long moments of geologic time, deposits of the shining material were scooped up for a ride across the lake by massive glaciers, an incredible example of natural forces at work.

Commercially known as Yooperlite, the Michigan shore syenite was identified in 2018 and has since become an exciting stone for many geologic collectors. When exposed to ultraviolet light, the material will briefly glow a bright orange color, owing to the presence of sodalite. This material is a silicate mineral that was often fashioned into a gemstone due to its deep blue coloring and appearing as an ornament in pre-Columbian Peru.

What makes sodalite so special is its fluorescence, the ability to change color under the application of UV light. The material is often found in sulfur-bearing veins, though it is debated whether the presence of sulfur contributes to the material’s fluorescence. The material has been found across the Americas, as well as in Afghanistan’s Badakhshan Province and Myanmar’s Mogok region, but its combination with syenite makes this variety of sodalite something special.

Surrounding the sodalite inclusions is a base of syenite, a coarse igneous rock. At first glance, syenite appears simply as granite, though it lacks quartz with only a minimal amount or none at all. Instead, syenite contains biotite and hornblende, two ferromagnesian minerals (rocks containing high levels of iron and magnesium). Syenite is rare to begin with—the union with sodalite to make fluorescent syenite is even rarer, known to just a few locations on Earth.

One such location is Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the stone can be found along the banks of Lake Superior. Using a UV flashlight and searching the rocky beach at dusk or night, you can uncover smooth pebbles of the uncovered glowing stone. So just how did this fluorescent syenite come to be found as smooth stones along Superior’s shoreline when its origin lies in Canada?

Evidence suggests that after its formation, this variety of sodalite-rich syenite was carried by a glacier south from Canada’s Laurentian Shield, a vast deposit of igneous rock that covers much of the country’s eastern half. A top contender for the precise origin point is the Coldwell Complex's syenite-heavy intrusion of rock just across Lake Superior in Ontario. How this intrusion formed can tell us more about the origins of this sodalite-rich syenite.

The Coldwell Complex formed 1.1 billion years ago as part of the Mid-Continent Rift System, a break in the North American tectonic plate that formed Lake Superior and pushed up igneous rock deposits. The complex is made up of the remnants of a volcano that collapsed in on itself, sealing the magma within that ultimately turned into igneous rock. Among this intrusion can be found sodalite-syenite.

From there, glacial erosion exposed the rock underneath and migrated the material far away from its origin point, ending up across Lake Superior. When this happens to a rock, it’s known as a glacial erratic. In sodalite-syenite’s case, this same erosion and movement makes the rock smooth to the touch, allowing for an easy comparison with other syenite material from the Coldwell Complex.