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Mineral Specimens with Quartz
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10.0 x 4.0 x 3.5 cm. A fine cabinet combination specimen from the Erongo Mountains of Namibia. An aesthetic cluster of sharp, lustrous, striated schorl crystals to 3.3 cm is beautifully bracketed by glassy, smoky quartz crystals. Both the schorl and smoky quartzes rest on a bit of feldspar matrix. The rear, 5.5 cm, smoky "sentinel" is very imposing and is complete all-around.
7.4 x 5.8 x 3.8 cm. Yes, this is a Berbes quartz specimen - not a New York "Herkimer". When you hear Berbes, you think fluorite and baryte, not a fine quartz specimen. This is a floater, with the crystals having grown together, and no attachments. There are some tiny rounded pyrite crystals inclusions inside the crystals. Ex. Wein Collection.
8.0 x 6.9 x 3.0 cm. Clusters of gemmy little calcite crystals look like snowdrift on this plate of amethyst crystals from Guanajuato. Ex. Mullane Collection.
4.4 cm in largest dimension. These are New Mexico Japan-Law twins from an old collection. They came from an obscure old mine in the El Capitan range. Note the short "wingspan" which gives them a heart shape, and the striations slanting out from the center twinning plane.
7.4 x 4.9 x 2.8 cm. Starkly contrasting glassy black crystals of schorl tourmaline, to 2.3 cm, surrounding a translucent crystal of quartz, with bits of feldspar and one sharp euhedral crystal attached.
7.0 x 3.9 x 3.0 cm. These Riemvasmaak fluorites are always pretty when the crystals are transparent and sharp as these are, but this specimen is truly unique. Why? Because the fluorites grew on the side and base of a sharp, euhedral crystal of milky quartz - which then grew partly around the fluorites. Interesting and unusual. The larger fluorite measures 1.5 cm.
9.5 x 4.5 x 4.5 cm. Kyanites are usually rather opaque and too buried in chunks of quartz matrix to be all that attractive, but once in awhile you get dazzling specimens such as this with intense blue color, and translucent, that have been excavated or grown in pockets so that the crystals are shown off on a perfect natural "base" of quartz, as with this specimen. The larger crystal measures 9.5 cm. It forms a beautiful arrangement with the smaller crystals and contrasting white quartz. The terminations of kyanite crystals are so naturally rough that it is often hard to tell whether the crystals are terminated or not.
5.9 x 5.4 x 3.4 cm. Though these are contemporary, they have a very "classic" look about them, to me. Clear quartz prisms rise from a bed of thinly bladed hematite.
12.4 x 7.9 x 6.5 cm. This is just classic big, fat quartz crystal from the Alps (Austrian Alps) - a large compound crystal, with a smaller crystal growing against its side. The interior is quite transparent ("glasklar", according to the Wein collection card that accompanies the specimen). Ex. Wein Collection.
9.6 x 7.6 x 5.8 cm. This specimen reminds me of a sugar Easter egg you used to get as a kid where you looked inside to see a little scene. On a snowy blanket of sparkly quartz inside this pocket, which has "windows" on either end, are several super-gemmy little tan crystals of calcite. Fortunately, they are near the "windows" so you can see them clearly from either side. Ex. Consie Prince Collection.
13.0 x 11.1 x 6.3 cm. This beautiful cluster of yellow quartz is from the Thusis area of the Swiss Alps. The yellow is not from the same impurity that causes citrine (most of the citrine you see is "cooked" to produce its color, in fact), but from inclusions of hematite in this case. It gives the gemmy quartz crystals a very distinctive look for Swiss quartz, and these are rare. The big crystal you see slanting across the center measures over 7 cm. The crystals are complete, sharp and free of damage. Ex. A. Martaud Collection.
18.9 x 13.9 x 12.8 cm. You generally see these so-called "Herkimer Diamonds" (quartz) alone or in groups, apart from the matrix. But this very large specimen is really interesting in that you get to see them in their natural setting. They are found in large hard-rock boulders that must be split apart (the labor is supposedly quite intense to find these) in order to search for and expose the little pockets in which they have formed. They look like diamonds glittering almost impossibly inside the gray, dull host rock - as if they were place there. There are two separate pockets on this one specimen, with crystals up to 1.5 cm.
30.4 x 16.4 x 9.4 cm. Chinese amethysts are not well-known. It has formed in two large masses of compound crystals, with dozens of lustrous points aimed out in opposite directions. The matrix is massive, colorless quartz, with a bit of iron-oxide coating giving it the yellow color that provides the pretty color for the amethyst. Ex. Wein Collection.
18.1 x 13.7 x 4.5 cm. This is a (human) brain-sized, natural formation of coral that has been pseudomorphed inside by gleaming chalcedony. There are other examples of pseudomorphs of minerals after organic matter, including (of course) petrified wood. But this has to be one of the more dramatic.
13.9 x 12.2 x 8.1 cm. Uruguayan amethyst has a very distinctive, intense color to it. Here, the interior of a large geode is lined is lined with these beautiful crystals. Ex. Richard Hauck Collection.
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Rob Lavinsky, rob@irocks.com
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share specimen![Schorl, Quartz (Var: Smoky Quartz) from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-211564a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-211564a.jpg)
![Quartz from Berbes Mining area, Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain [db_pics/mdpics/MD-211927a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-211927a.jpg)
![Calcite, Quartz (Var: Amethyst) from La Sirena Mine, Guanajuato, Mun. de Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico [db_pics/mdpics/MD-211931a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-211931a.jpg)
![Quartz from Mina Tiro Estrella, El Capitan Mts, Capitan District, Lincoln Co., New Mexico, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-211932a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-211932a.jpg)
![Schorl, Quartz, Feldspar Group from Erongo Mountain, Usakos and Omaruru Districts, Erongo Region, Namibia [db_pics/mdpics/MD-211933a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-211933a.jpg)
![Fluorite, Quartz from Riemvasmaak, Kakamas District, Northern Cape Province, South Africa [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212048a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212048a.jpg)
![Kyanite, Quartz from Minas Gerais, Southeast Region, Brazil [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212057a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212057a.jpg)
![Quartz, Hematite from Lechang Mine, Lechang Co., Shaoguan Prefecture, Guangdong Province, China [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212064a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212064a.jpg)
![Quartz from Grieswies-Mähder, Grieswies, Grieswies - Krumlkeeskopf Mt. area, Hüttwinkl valley, Rauris valley, Hohe Tauern Mts, Salzburg, Austria [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212066a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212066a.jpg)
![Calcite, Quartz from Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, India [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212076a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212076a.jpg)
![Calcite, Quartz from Jalgaon District, Maharashtra, India [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212076b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212076b.jpg)
![Quartz from Viaplana, Sils im Domleschg, Thusis, Domleschg, Hinterrhein Valley, Grischun (Grisons; Graubünden), Switzerland [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212095a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212095a.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Herkimer Diamond) from Herkimer Co., New York, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101a.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Herkimer Diamond) from Herkimer Co., New York, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101b.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Herkimer Diamond) from Herkimer Co., New York, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101c.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212101c.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Amethyst) from Yuanyang Co., Honghe Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212106a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212106a.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Chalcedony) from Tampa Bay, Tampa, Hillsborough Co., Florida, USA [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212107a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212107a.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Amethyst) from Artigas, Artigas Department, Uruguay [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212109a.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212109a.jpg)
![Quartz (Var: Amethyst) from Artigas, Artigas Department, Uruguay [db_pics/mdpics/MD-212109b.jpg]](db_pics/mdpics/MD-212109b.jpg)