2.4" Red-Brown Jarosite & Quartz Association - Colorado Mine, Utah

Jarosite is the most common mineral of the alunite supergroup with a base chemical formula of KFe3+ 3(SO4)2(OH)6. The crystals are usually found as brown to amber-yellow granular crusts or coatings within cavities. The crystals are often very small: larger crystal formations are considered relatively rare. The crystals are most often found with tabular and/or pseudo-cubic structures.

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.