1.7" Polished Agate Skull with Quartz Crown

This is a gorgeous, 1.7" tall polished agate skull with a quartz crown. This specimen has undergone intricate sculpting and polishing that left the agate in the shape of a skull. The agate and quartz are naturally associated.

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.

Agate is a variety of microcrystalline quartz (chalcedony) that displays translucence and, in some cases, banding. Agate primarily forms when silica-rich fluids fill pockets within rocks and/or fossils, depositing the silica along the walls of the rock. This process can result in banding patterns, as the compositions and impurities of these depositing fluids change over time. These banding patterns can either form as flat layers, creating linear patterns known as waterline agate, or as rounded layers, forming more common ring-like patterns. These patterns depend on the surfaces available for deposition.

SOLD
DETAILS
SPECIES
Chalecedony var. Agate & Quartz
LOCATION
Brazil
SIZE
1.7 x 1.5 x 1.2"
CATEGORY
ITEM
#149544