Beautiful 1.96" Spessartine Garnet & Smoky Quartz - China

Here is a beautiful 1.96" Spessartine Garnet & Smoky Quartz on a matrix of Feldspar from Fujian Province, China. Although there are some minor abrasions present, the specimen is in overall great shape and displays nicely on a flat surface.

Garnets are nesosilicates with the general formula X3Y2(SiO4)3. Garnets come in many species, including pyrope, almandine (the most common species), spessartine, uvarovite, andradite and grossular, varieties of which are hessonite, cinnamon-stone, and tsavorite. Garnets are found in a wide variety of colors including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, blue, black, pink, and colorless, though reddish shades are the most common.


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.


Smoky quartz is a grey-brown to black variety of quartz. This common name is derived from the appearance of smoke within the quartz crystal. Depending on the location and the chemicals present during formation, smoky quartz can appear opaque black, but it is typically translucent to some extent. It is believed that the quartz gains this color from a combination of natural irradiation and aluminum impurities.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Spessartine Garnet & Smoky Quartz
LOCATION
Fujian Province, China
SIZE
1.96x1.46x1.20"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#32601