#Really Big Crystals?
21 messages in this thread
How large do quartz crystals get? A friend of mine in the Amiga market has
found a doozy – there's a 250K+ GIF image of it in the Black Belt Systems data
library of the 'go amigav' forum. How large? About 400 pounds, he says, and
it's at least the size of a large dog – a single smoky quartz crystal.
Check it out!
John – that wouldn't be our dear friend, eternal gadfly, and programmer
extraordinaire, Ben (Blish) Williams would it?
that pesky rascal has all the darn luck!
M
Hi John,
How about a quartz crystal, as I recall, about 17,500 lbs. that was
displayed at the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show about 5 (?) years ago.
Rod
Rod,
Yeah, it was in 1987, the specimen was displayed by Zee Haag of Tucson and came
from Namibia. As I recall it was doubly terminated and about 8 feet long and 5
feet across. It came out of a pegmatite that produces watermelon tourmaline and
had a few broken tourmalines embedded in it.
I also recall reading in Rock & Gems several years ago about some large smokies
rescued from a pegmatite in Brazil (I say rescued because they would have been
broken up for the gem material). The larger ones were something like 12 feet
long. They were taken to Europe(?) and are on display. There was a photograph
of them with (If I remember correctly) Jim Henson (of Muppet fame) standing
beside one of them. These didn't weigh anything like Zee's monster being only a
couple feet in diameter, but certainly were a few tons. Quartz crystals in the
few "hundred pound" range are common in the Brazil pegmatites. I've seen a
couple photographs of couple dealers' walkway "fences" made with crystals 2-4
feet long!
Lanny
Lanny,
Hi there. Coincidentally, I just bought your "Guide to Montana, Volume 1" at
Powell's technical bookstore in Oregon while visiting my sister for xmas. 🙂
Regarding my smokey quartz xtal, one thing about it is it's not from those rich
pegs in Brazil or Namibia… it's from an area where these things are not
common at all, except as you note for the Crystal Park locality – and those
aren't in this class at all, for size… tho they are nice, I have a shelf full
of sceptres and twins from there.
I know of lots of good Montana sites for collecting… most new or at least
previously unmentioned anywhere I've looked, which is every collecting guide
I've ever seen on a shelf, anywhere. Interested?
Ben
Ben,
>> I know of lots of good Montana sites for collecting… Interested?
Silly question. I'm sure lots of people are interested. Have you thought about
writing them up? There's a serious lack of current field guides – a lot of
those on the market are several decades old.
BTW, I've seen some pretty big quartz crystals on display at Coleman's shop
outside of Hot Springs, AR. As I remember, they ranged up to maybe 8 feet long
and 3 feet in diameter. Hardly gem grade, but impressive.
Al
Al,
I've often thought of doing a field guide; self-publishing such a thing would
be easy. However, Lanny has already done this, and just recently, too, for
Montana. And Lanny's name could sell some copies, while MY name is likely to do
nothing at all. That's why I asked him.
I imagine that at some point, the collecting sites I know about will find there
way into something, whether I publish it or not.
Montana's a very rich state, collecting site-wise. A huge amount of the land is
open to collecting, and savvy collectors can do very well here. In five years
I've amassed a Montana-specific collection that would be the envy of many a
small museum… 🙂
Ben
Ben,
>> Lanny's name could sell some copies, while MY name is likely to do
>> nothing at all.
Not to belittle Lanny's reputation<G>, but I wonder if it really makes much
difference. It's not as if there are hundreds of field guides available to
choose from. I know that I look seriously at every one I come across. The only
one whose author's name I recognized was Vandall King's Maine book – and that's
because Van is the guru of our local mineral society.
I haven't yet done any collecting (or looking – that's what I do mostly) in
Montana. Next spring, we're driving to CA through NM and AZ, and were thinking
of swinging north on the way back. How early in the year are good collecting
sites accessible in Montana?
Al
Al,
>> How early in the year are good collecting sites accessible in Montana?
Well, that depends on where you're planning to collect. Here (northeastern
Montana… the plains), you can collect as early as March, if the weather is
tolerable. Up in the mountains, figure mid june to be safe… even then you
might find some pretty darned cold places. 🙂
There are six or seven _excellent_ collecting sites within 50 miles of here,
none of which are in anything even remotely resembling mountainous terrain. The
primary metric I use is, "will the ground be frozen?" Because if it is, the
difficulty goes waaaay up, as I'm sure you realize. June is real safe for all
the nearby sites, and not too unreasonable even for some of the higher ones,
like Crystal Park. For a good idea where to go, get Lanny's book – he's done a
fine job of identifying and detailing access for quite a few sites. Well worth
the pesos.
Ben
Ben,
Thanks for the weather info. Hmmm-Arizona in Feb, work around to Montana by
mid-June. If I win the lottery and don't have to waste time working. Actually,
we could schedule our trip in March, the SW is still tolerable then.
I'll look for Lanny's book, but will probably have to mail order it. Unless I
can buy it from the author?
Al
Al,
The author sells it.:-)
There is a book list in the library, or e-mail me your address and I will send
a list.
Lanny
Gee, could I possibly say no? Yes, always interested in new
localities, I am an avid field collector and love to write. I am also
good at keeping secrets though if you have localities you wish not
published, but I do prefer sharing info with all. A shelf full of
scepters and twins!! That really interests me, I am a quartz nut (or
just a nut according to some).
Apparently you are saying that the large smoky quartz is from
Montana. There have been some large crystals found in the Boulder
batholith, especially just east of Butte. I've seen a couple to
probably 100 pounds, and have heard tell of a couple still above the
east ridge that are supposed to be in the 4-500 pound range. Of
course there may also have been an unusually large one or two from
Lolo (Granite Creek).
Best of luck collecting.
Thanks for the reply. Yes, the smokey is from near Butte, and is just
short of the 400 pound mark. I've uploaded a GIF of it to the AMIGAV
forum, it's in section six: "crystl.gif". I think it's probably
record or near-record for an actual, I-can-show-you smokey quartz
crystal from Montana. Stories, well, we all hear stories. 🙂
Quartz nut, eh? Me too… I really have a wide range of quartz xtls
from lots of places… but in the last few years, I've been
concentrating on "Montana Collection". Quite a few trips to Crystal
Park have resulted in many, many scepters, including some which go
from smokey to clear to amethest over the length of the specimen. One
of those is about 3 inches in length, and has pride of place.
I also have an astonishing collection of Montana barite specimens;
sprays of spiney crystals two inches or so in diameter, clusters with
individuals reaching five inches and just a stunning coppery brown
color, gemlike in appearance.
Montana – Rocks, beautiful scenery, 5$ speeding tickets (that don't go
on your license), and no sales tax. Why live anywhere else? <grin>
Ben,
Why live anywhere else? How about today's temperature in Havre (or even a
little further east perhaps). 🙂 Yeah, Montana is a nice place, now if I could
just get more of these Californians to decide it is better than N. Idaho…
400 pounds that is big, for most anywhere. The other large ones I have
mentioned were described by other collectors in the Butte area, so, except for
one that goes about 120 pounds, and has some amethyst overgrowing the tip (if
I'm not confusing it with a smaller specimen) I have never seen the big ones.
I've been to Crystal Park too, really only spent more than a few hours there a
couple times, hit one nice scepter pocket, longest only about 2 inches–but
nice stuff. There has been some good stuff displayed at the Butte and Missoula
shows showing the amethyst and smoky color in nice scepters. Guess I should
have worked harder at it!!
The Montana barites–from the sceptarian nodules perhaps? They sound great.
I'ave only looked for them at the one place in my book and only found a few
smaller ones–a little better than an inch.
Lanny
> I've been to Crystal Park too, really only spent more than a few hours there
a couple times, hit
> one nice scepter pocket, longest only about 2 inches–but nice stuff. There
has been some good
> stuff displayed at the Butte and Missoula shows showing the amethyst and
smoky color in nice
> scepters. Guess I should have worked harder at it!!
You bet – that place is so rich it's not funny. When Anne and I go, we get up
there early inthe morning, sometimes we take our little trailer up there the
night before and sleep there. Then we dig all day… couple of subs from Subway
(from a cooler) for lunch, and back to digging. You get bucketfuls if you're
persistant.
> The Montana barites–from the sceptarian nodules perhaps? They sound great.
I'ave only looked
> for them at the one place in my book and only found a few smaller ones–a
little better than an
> inch.
These things are inside boulders that range from three feet to six feet in
diameter. They take serious hammer work to get into, but oh man, is it worth
it. You'll see. 🙂 The boulders are like miniture caves; they have stalactites
and stalagmites, columns, flowstone, etc – all in miniature. The material is a
glorious brown glistening color when first opened, though it fades rapidly once
exposed to air. Inside a fair number of the boulders, you find either crystals
the size of your index finger in clusters, or sprays of crystals that look like
a bunch of needles stuck in a pad. It takes a great deal of care to get them
out unbroken, and sometimes they break in the process of just getting into the
boulders, as that is a big-impact operation… I have some large specimens
here, complete with the cavelike growths and attached crystals. Maybe I should
upload some more photos… easy enough to poloroid, scan, and upload. You want
I should?
Hollow boulders? So how do you know which ones to try to crack? What sort of
heavy equipment do you use?
I try to crack them all. Of course, I'm not done yet. 🙂
Seriously, you scout an area, find some likely looking candidates, and pick one
that shows a hint – maybe a little sagging, this appears to happen during the
formation of the boulders if they're pretty hollow, too hollow to support
themselves in whatever semi-fluid state they were in.
As for heavy equipment, none at all. I use an Estwing rock hammer, safety
glasses, and a sledge hammer that I think weighs in at 6-8 lbs. I put the point
of the rock hammer into a crack or simply where I think it'll be likely to do
the most good, and drive it in with the sledge. Usually, the "skin" of the
boulder will break out within about 10 minutes of work. From there, if the
boulder is indeed hollow, you can insert the hammer tip in crevasses inside the
boulder and break it open. They almost always fracture right across the whole
boulder during the process of getting through the very hard skin – I think the
outer surface was baked hard by the sun, it both appears to be a different
material, and certainly offers much greater resistance than the interior of the
boulders. If they haven't fractured across, you start somewhere else on the
boulder that seems likely to encourage it to do so. One boulder can take
anywhere from 20 minutes to open to all day… you have to peek inside them to
guess if they're worth that kind of extended effort, but usually, they are, so
I'm pretty consistant – once I start, I go until they're reduced to collectable
chunks.
It's definitely difficult work – but it's definitely worth it. 🙂
Inside the boulders you can find barite, calcite and selenite crystals – I've
got a selenite specimen still on the matrix that is about 8 inches long, very
beautiful. Calcite occurs in drusy layers, mostly… I have yet to find a large
crystal of it. The barite is the most common, and a trip out virtually
gaurantees some beautiful specimens, though I admit we've had one or two dry
days.
Ben
Ben,
Upload a couple; I would like to see them and I am sure some of the others
would too. Now if spring will just hurry up and get here…
Lanny
I'll do it. Lemme find that Poloroid…
Ben