1.4" Quartz Rosette - Artigas, Uruguay

This is a quartz "rosette". This specimen is the tip of a stalactite projection from inside of an amethyst or quartz geode. When the geodes are mined out of hard rock, the projections often break and then the ends are cut into these gorgeous rosettes.

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
Quartz
LOCATION
Artigas, Uruguay
SIZE
1.4
CATEGORY
ITEM
#142050