Red Quartz (included by Iron) with Sphalerite - image 1

Red Quartz (included by Iron) with Sphalerite - image 2

Red Quartz (included by Iron) with Sphalerite - image 4

Red Quartz (included by Iron) with Sphalerite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

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).