This ultra showy piece is a "hedgehog" of red, needlelike Quartz crystals radiating outward with dark Sphalerite crystals at the center, and is a true Dalnegorsk Russian classic from the 1990s and early 2000s, rarely seen today. It consists of tapering Quartz needed from 1 to 3.5 cm in length that are dark salmon-red through much of their length and become lighter colored toward their tips. The majority of them are in excellent conditions with pristine tips although a few are broken off flush with the matrix. The Sphalerite "knots" are from 0.7 to 1.5 cm across and are comprised of black-brown, equant crystals. These pretty "red quartz" crystal clusters from Dalnegorsk are tinted red by trace amounts of iron (dispersed within, so not really hematite per se).
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