MONTBLANC 100th anniversary
pen cap is with the granite

FOUNTAIN-PEN-ZONE.COM

ENJOY PHOTOS

That's class ^_^

It is both gaudy and plain at the same time. Wow.

Kurt H

I don't think I could have said that better, Kurt.

Is this a diamond star on the cap ?

Wow! Is that thing heavy?

Wow. I like it.
I'll bet that's one pen that isn't comfortable to write with posted.

Is it truly Mont Blanc granite?



Photo stolen from http://geol-alp.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr/h_mt_b...Mont-blanc.html

Wow, probably it is...

Yep,

The MB site states the granite is from Mont Blanc. Oh, and that is a real diamond in the cap.

Very cool looking pen!

http://www.montblanc.com/specials/100years...plattform=flash

Bryan

Take a closer look at Antonios's pic. There isn't granite at mont blanc it's gneiss! I guess gneiss wouldn't sell as well so it's granite from the mountain.

Kurt H

Well I may be accused of having all my taste in my mouth
But the pen really does nothing for me...
I think it is a case of "too much".. instead of a nice classical style. Of course I have never been a big Mont Blanc fan to begin with...

Looks like there is both granite and gneiss in Mont Blanc. It appears the image is showing that the base rock is granite with a layer of newer gneiss on top of it.

It also looks like if one was going to go quarry some rock from that mountian it would be far easier to get at the granite. I personally don't recall any high altitude quarries in the alps.

Hi Robert,

As a former geologist, I don´t think the gneiss has to be newer or younger to be on top . Actually, it is on top of the mountain, but not necessarily on top of the granite. Since most of the Alps consist of "nappes" (I can´t think of the proper English word right now), which are essentially crumpled sheets of rocky material that were shifted by natural forces on top of and underneath each other, it is rather hard to say which is the oldest or youngest until a study is made to determine just that.

The same is true for the top or bottom layer. It depends a lot on the formation process, and the inclination of the rocks.

I couldn´t really make that out from the description or other pictures on the page where Antonios borrowed the picture from either.

I did see a very nice example once, in the area where the phenomenon was first discovered, and where the top "layer" consisted of very old stuff, the middle layer was younger, and the lowest layer was the youngest, with considerable geological gaps between all of them, even when stacked correctly (and no, they weren´t just overturned or so ).

Warm regards, Wim

Layers ? Sheets ? Blankets ? :ph34r:

Hi Denis, Robert,

Just checked, it is called nappes in English . These are sheets of sediments and other rocks, which are pushed on top and over each other during orogenesis (mountain forming) caused by continental drift, in this case the proto-Italian plates and African shield moving into the European shield. Shields are essentially the oldest part of continents, formed when the Earth first cooled off.

The gneiss, which essentially is formed by warmed up sediments (because they were lying rather deep originally), to a degree that these old sediments lost all old structures, and aren't recognizable as sediments anymore, are nappes themselves, as are the calcareous rocks and sandstones etc., in the Alps and adjoining mountains. The granite is old shield, i.e., old continental crust, but even some pieces of those became nappes because the shear force broke off large shards of the stuff. By large I mean many kilometres in size.

Generally, however, the granites in the Alps are so-called massifs, which were there orginally, and which were covered by younger rocks, not necessarily in the right order, of tectonically shifted layers of rocks.

So, the choice of granite for this pen is correct: the granites form the old, original core of the Alps, and of the Mont Blanc.

And Robert, you were right after all: the gneiss is younger than the granite; I did look it up.

Warm regards, Wim

Hi Yuan,
Thanks for the pics!!!But can't we can looking the pics on your forum without registering?

Take Care,
Emrecan

Very nice looking!!!

TNS

Hi emrecan

Sorry My forum Must register can look.......