6.5" Multi-Colored, Stepped Fluorite on Milky Quartz - Inner Mongolia
This breathtaking specimen features a cluster of milky quartz crystals that are covered in stepped fluorite crystals. The fluorite crystals have a mixture of purple, green and blue coloration within and a stepped-octahedral structure. This specimen comes from the Huanggang Fe-Sn Deposit in Inner Mongolia. The base has been cut flat for presentation purposes.
Under short-wave UV light, the exterior of the fluorite crystals fluoresce a white-purple color.
Under short-wave UV light, the exterior of the fluorite crystals fluoresce a white-purple color.
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 tend to be the most common colors seen, with colorless, pink, and black being the rarest.
Silicon Dioxide, also known as SiO2 or Quartz, is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich, hot watery solutions called hydrothermal environments, at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountains forming, and can be hundreds of millions of years old.
SPECIES
Fluorite & Quartz
LOCATION
Huanggang Fe-Sn deposit, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, China
SIZE
6.5 x 5.6"
CATEGORY
SUB CATEGORY
ITEM
#179971