Miscellaneous Quartz

Quartz forms the most common crystals on this quaint planet (second to snow that is).
Despite its common occurance, its graceful finger comprise an amazing array of beautiful different shapes and colors,
some of which I am able to present to you here! Any others I would be VERY interested in hearing about!

This unusual crystal of transparent quartz is lightly coated
with chlorite. The classic gwindel locality is Mont Blanc,
where this specimen comes from.
Large 'x' faces are evident in this piece.
The only faces of this crystal that are not terminated are where it was attached on the bottom.

The standard growth direction for quartz is along the axis which is
horizontal in this specimen.
Gwindles grow perpendicular to those regular old hexagonal prisms.
To boot, this crystal has a 25° twist along the vertical axis! The bizarre name comes from the German word for twisted.

Size is 3x2x1 inches.
I purchased this at the 1994 Grenoble Mineral Show.
One really cool quartz!

Well known examples - Herkimer County, New York.
The one at left is slightly smoky, 4.0 cm. Except for one ding at bottom center, it's externally flawless. The one on the right is just over 3 cm and shows the transparency. Strongly transparent quartz is a real bear to photograph well, especially for amateurs like me. Herkimer quartz is the only locality I have seen that rivals the clarity and smoothness of quartz from La Gardette, although Herkimers usually come in stubby double terminated crystals instead of long slender prisms.

A very elongated prism with a reddish brown termination.
From Madagascar.

Perfect hexagonal bi-pyramids from Chubb Lake, New York.
This thumbnail has a dozen or so beautifully formed slightly iron-stained crystals. Secondary hematite present.

A tabular quartz from the Oisans Mountains of southeastern France.
These tabulars are sometimes referred to as Faden quartz, in which a milky line (NW/SE at lower left) runs through the cyrstal and seeded its growth. This example has perfect terminations on all sides and an irridescent spot formed by the intersection of two tabular crystals at a very slight angle misorientation. Attachment ding is only 3mm. Size 3cm x 3cm x 4mm.

Another specimen from the Oisans mountains of Isère, France.
These parallel crystals are uniformly included with green chlorite and almost completely lack "z" faces.

Phantom of quartz with green chlorite in clear crystal. From the Oisan Range of the Dauphiné.

This Mexican amethyst ought to please any Roman catholic! It's just over 4 cm. tall, but it's a fine matrix specimen without ding.

Two views of an unusual and beautiful quartz crystal exhibiting naturally curved faces, from Atikokan, Ontario. Coated with bright pink dolomite. It appears the effect is the result of an alternating steep rhombohedral face and 'x' face.

And speaking of steep rhombohedral faces, this almost completely unincluded smoky specimen comes from the Adams farm in Anderson County, North Carolina. This crystal is over 2 inches long.

Nice quality quartz prism from Hot Springs, Arkansas. 8cm.

Two views of a trio of quartz sceptres from where ??? - Rhode Island!
These beautiful transparent amethyst crystals are sitting atop bitermined milky quartz. Size of the specimen is 6cm. This specimen is traded away.

Japan law twin from the namesake locality (!) Nagasaki, Japan. The two equant tabular crystals are each just over a centimeter long.

And another Japan Law, one inch of beautiful, clear, and tabular SiO2 from the Valhalla Mountains of British Columbia.

Here is a really nice list of many of the types of quartz.

Return to Albert's Mineral Home Page.

Here are some other quartz specimens from my collections.
1 2 3 4

A much more comprehensive, modern, and well constructed page on quartz is here.