With its high degree of transparency and relatively good durability, colorless rock crystal quartz is the perfect host for a variety of mineral inclusions. As a common crustal mineral, it often forms as a single transparent crystal, sometimes of significant size.
This issue’s Quarterly Crystal, a 3230.50 ct transparent crystal measuring 108.84 × 97.42 × 65.40 mm (figure 1), comes from the Yaogangxian mine in Hunan Province, China. The singly terminated quartz specimen with eye-visible apple green inclusions was purchased from Nabeel Ashraf of Poetry In Gems (San Diego, California).
As shown in figure 2, examination of the quartz crystal revealed numerous near-colorless to apple green, transparent to translucent, euhedral inclusions identified by Raman analysis as fluorite. These fluorite crystals showed directional deposition and were all present in a phantom plane, situated only on one side of the quartz specimen. This, together with the sharp-edged condition of the fluorite crystals, suggested that they were syngenetic with the quartz host.
While transparent colorless quartz is relatively common at the Yaogangxian mine, this large quartz crystal made a unique host for the numerous fluorite inclusions.
With its high degree of transparency and relatively good durability, colorless rock crystal quartz is the perfect host for a variety of mineral inclusions. As a common crustal mineral, it often forms as a single transparent crystal, sometimes of significant size.
This issue’s Quarterly Crystal, a 3230.50 ct transparent crystal measuring 108.84 × 97.42 × 65.40 mm (figure 1), comes from the Yaogangxian mine in Hunan Province, China. The singly terminated quartz specimen with eye-visible apple green inclusions was purchased from Nabeel Ashraf of Poetry In Gems (San Diego, California).
As shown in figure 2, examination of the quartz crystal revealed numerous near-colorless to apple green, transparent to translucent, euhedral inclusions identified by Raman analysis as fluorite. These fluorite crystals showed directional deposition and were all present in a phantom plane, situated only on one side of the quartz specimen. This, together with the sharp-edged condition of the fluorite crystals, suggested that they were syngenetic with the quartz host.
While transparent colorless quartz is relatively common at the Yaogangxian mine, this large quartz crystal made a unique host for the numerous fluorite inclusions.
