4.5" Quartz Crystal Cluster with Fuchsite Phantoms - Madagascar

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.

Fuchsite chert, also commonly referred to as "Dragon Stone", is cryptocrystalline quartz stone metamorphosed from fuchsite. It forms when a fuchsite vein is subjected to intense pressure and dissolution from super hot ground waters, which partially dissolve the fuchsite into a silica solution, forming large boulders. Much of the material retains fuchsite's emerald green coloring, but can also be found in lighter shades of green. Fuchsite, also known as chrome mica, is a chromium-rich variety of the mineral muscovite.