Science meets fantasy settings #2
We all do love the idea of magical glowing crystals! And fantasy settings do too! They’re one of the most common used tropes after all! Do you ever get sad that there are no caves with glowing crystals? Do you wish they were real?
(x) Heated thermoluminescent fluorite
There are crystals that do glow under UV light. But we don’t see UV light every day so that’s not as impressive as ordinary glow in the dark feature.
Fluorite could be the closest thing we got to the typical glowing crystal. Fluorites are most famous for being fluorescent - glowing under UV light. But most fluorites are capable of thermoluminescence - glowing after getting heated to certain degree. Some fluorites can be phosphorescent - they continue to glow after exposure to UV light. They’re not very common though.
Now there’s a problem - thermoluminescence can be wasted (depending on each piece of fluorite some last longer) and so the fluorite must be “recharged” to be able to do thermoluminescence again. It can be done with irradiation. With this knowledge we can either fill a cave with fluorite crystals, maybe a dragon cave that could provide the needed heat supply. But there also needs to be some source of irradiation. Maybe a hole in the centre of the cave so the sunlight could reach them. Or just put some radioactive rocks nearby. ;) If the crystals were to be present in a forest then we got solved our source of irradiation but what about the heat? Depending on the kind of fluorite some are able to be thermoluminescent just by the heat of human palm. But either way the forest definitely cant be located in cold regions. There - you now got guide to “realistic fantasy settings” that is backed up by science (except for exposed crystals growing in the forest but let that be).
(x) thermoluminescent fluorite glowing so strongly, the glow is visible even in the light
There is also a mineral that can be luminescent - glowing without any (previous) source of light exposure/heat/other prerequisites. It’s Hackmanite.
Not all Hackmanites are luminescent though. They also don’t fit the more prettier image of the typical crystal as fluorite can. Also the ability to do thermoluminescence is quite common in fluorite while hackmanites performing luminescence is not a rule. Nevertheless it’s very interesting mineral with special ability and the glow color - white - is also unique.
Although these caves don’t glow thanks to glowing crystals, just glowing larvae, they are also very real thing!
So are glowing crystals a thing? Sure! But mostly under certain conditions. Can you have glowing caves? Definitely!
