Certain types of minerals are subject to severe appearance changes upon exposure to light and heat in display cases.  Colors may change or fade, transparent crystals may become translucent or opaque, or the minerals themselves may become obscured by the formation of altered surface layers. 

Monitoring the fading process:  The micro-fading tester (instrumentation developed at the Artists’ Materials Center) is well-suited to monitoring the changes in the minerals as well as predicting their light stability. 

Our focus is to:

• Measure the action spectrum (wavelengths of light most responsible for the damage).
• Monitor the dose response (rate at which light disfigures the specimen).
• Understand the underlying mechanism for damage.
• Establish standards for the display of light sensitive minerals.

This study should help identify the conditions that can allow display of these sensitive materials at acceptable rates of damage.

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