Microcline with Quartz

specimen number:
2312317

location:
Lake George area, Colorado, USA

description:
Large blocky bluish crystals of microcline, this is the variety known as amazonite, coming off matrix with crystalline smoky quartz. Good large crystals. In good condition.

The pegmatites near Lake George, Colorado, formed within the Precambrian Pikes Peak batholith, a massive granite intrusion dating back roughly one billion years. Slow cooling and trapped volatile gases created coarse-grained pegmatite dikes featuring open miarolitic cavities, where mineral-rich solutions crystallized over time. Historically, prospecting and collecting in the area began around the 1870s, transitioning from early casual mineral gathering by gold prospectors to organized commercial and recreational mining. While there is no single permanent opening or closing date for the district as a whole—since many claims are worked intermittently by private owners, mineral clubs, and commercial operations to this day—significant discoveries like the 1985 Key Hole Pocket and the 1997 Tree Root Pocket cemented the region's fame. The pegmatites are world-renowned for producing amazonite, a vibrant blue-green variety of microcline feldspar, which frequently occurs in striking aesthetic combination clusters alongside dark, gemmy smoky quartz.

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