5" Lustrous Yellow Cubic Fluorite Crystal Cluster - Morocco

This is a gorgeous cluster of bright yellow cubic fluorite crystals from Meknes, Morocco. Many of the crystals have sharp, well defined edges and glassy smooth faces. Small amounts of druzy quartz can be found encrusting some of the fluorite crystals.

Fluorite is a halide mineral comprised of calcium and fluorine, CaF2. The word fluorite is from the Latin fluo, which means to flow. In 1852 fluorite gave its name to the phenomenon known as fluorescence, or the property of fluorite to glow a different color depending upon the bandwidth of the ultraviolet light it is exposed to. Fluorite occurs commonly in cubic, octahedral, and dodecahedral crystals in many different colors. These colors range from colorless and completely transparent to yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, or black. Purples and greens are most commonly seen.

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.
SOLD
DETAILS
SPECIES
Fluorite & Quartz
LOCATION
El Hammam Mine, Meknes, Morocco
SIZE
5 x 3.1", Largest cube 1.4"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#104607