Anatase

$375.00

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An attractive cluster of glassy gemmy smoky quartz crystals, this with several anatase crystals as inclusions, the largest measuring to 0.3 cm in size. Complete all around with tiny and sparse micro-damage on the termination of the main quartz crystal, this still in very good condition. The Hardangervidda West region in Ullensvang, Vestland, Norway, encompasses Europe's largest mountain plateau, characterized by rugged, glaciated terrain shaped heavily during the Caledonian Orogeny. Geologically, the area consists primarily of Precambrian and Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, including schists and gneisses, crossed by hydrothermal alpine-type fissure veins. Historically, the remote plateau saw little large-scale industrial mining, but local alpine fissures gained fame among European researchers and mineral collectors starting in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries for preserving pristine pocket-hosted mineral assemblages. Anatase is a titanium oxide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system, typically forming sharp, highly lustrous, bipyramidal crystals ranging in color from deep blue and steel-black to rich browns. It most commonly develops as a secondary mineral within alpine-type fissures, greisens, and hydrothermal veins, where circulating fluids precipitate it alongside transparent quartz, adularia, and chlorite. The Western Hardangervidda area, particularly localities like Matskorhae, is internationally legendary among collectors for producing some of the world's finest display specimens of sharp anatase crystals artfully scattered across clear quartz matrices.