1.8" Quartz Crystals with Black Tourmaline (Schorl) - Namibia

Here is a beautiful association of quartz and black tourmaline (schorl), collected from the Erongo Mountains in Namibia. Some of the quartz crystals contain small, needle-like inclusions of schorl.

Tourmaline is a crystalline boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Schorl, or black tourmaline, is the most common form of tourmaline, and has been used for everything from jewelry to piezoelectric guitar pickups.

Quartz is the name given to silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich environments--usually igneous rocks or hydrothermal environments like geothermal waters--at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. In either case, crystals will precipitate as temperatures cool, just as ice gradually forms when water freezes. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountain formation: these veins can be hundreds of millions of years old.


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DETAILS
SPECIES
Tourmaline var. Schorl & Quartz
LOCATION
Erongo Mountains, Namibia
SIZE
1.8" wide
CATEGORY
ITEM
#69187