PERUAA-20
Atacamite & Clinoatacamite on Quartz
Lily Mine, Pisco Umay, Ica Department, Peru
Small Cabinet, 8.2 x 4.8 x 4.1 cm
SOLD

A gorgeous large display piece where the sparkling vugs in chrysocolla-infused quartz are the host for lustrous, dark green crystals of clinoatacamite, to 1 cm in length. And, if you look closer, you see there are ALSO 1 cm crystals of atcamite here as well! I had never before seen a specimen with both species on the same piece. How could this even form? They are the same chemistry, with different crystal habit, and you would think they could not both form at the same time in the same conditions. I know of only a handful of such combination pieces. This is one of the few larger examples from the find that I found to be aesthetic and without too much damage. It has unusual isolation to the sharp clusters of the rare species, clinoatacamite.