Quartz with Chlorite

A cluster of superb and impressive ice-clear Quartz crystals rest on a thin yet strong plate of mixed Quartz-Feldspar matrix. From the Central St. Gotthard Massif in Switzerland, the two largest Quartz crystals both measure to over 5.5 cm long and have terminations speckled with pale sage-green Chlorite micro-crystals. Many of the Quartz crystals exhibit quite different prism and termination morphologies, even between the largest crystals, making a specimen with great inherent interest. Some larger tabular Adularia crystals, a variety or Orthoclase feldspar, are dusted and included with grey-green Chlorite. Interestingly, although Fluorite is not recorded from this locality on the mindat database (although a Quartz and Fluorite specimen is shown), a perfect colourless octahedral crystal coated in Chlorite, 8 mm on edge, sits partly hidden at the base of one of the larger Quartz crystals. A terrific specimen from the St. Gotthard Massif.