Sulphur crystals, the mineral of the month in March. Juan López Aliaga Mineralogical Collection. M[UV]HN.

Crystalline example of Sulphur (S16), formed by orthorhombic crystals. Sulphur is a native element (formed exclusively by sulphur atoms).

This aggregate of sulphur crystals comes from the famous Italian municipality of Casteltermini (Sicily, Italy). These crystals are considered among the best in the world and nowadays it is difficult to locate specimens of this quality and location.

The specimen is part of the mineralogical collection "Juan López Aliaga", a deceased Valencian collector, which was donated in its entirety at the beginning of 2019 by his family to the Natural History Museum of the Universitat de València, where the cataloguing and photographic registration of the same is being carried out. The specimen measures 3x2x2 cm and has been photographed with a Pentax K1 Mark II camera with a high-resolution macro lens.

This mineral represents 10% of the composition of gunpowder, which is used in large quantities during the celebration of the Fallas of València during the month of March.