This Specimen has been sold.
1.2" Quartz Crystal Cluster Heart - Uruguay
This is a small, 1.2" wide quartz heart from the amethyst mines near Artigas, Uruguay. It was mined from within a pocket in the basalt. The orange color of the quartz can likely be attributed to iron oxidation. It has been cut into the shape of a heart and would make an excellent gift and/or jewelry piece.
Quartz is the name given to silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich environments--usually igneous rocks or hydrothermal environments like geothermal waters--at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. In either case, crystals will precipitate as temperatures cool, just as ice gradually forms when water freezes. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountain formation: these veins can be hundreds of millions of years old.