Quartz

specimen number:
2062561

location:
Switzerland

description:
A grouping of glassy gem smoky quartz crystals. This is naturally crystallized all around and in good condition. The specimen comes with a previous label from the collection of Ray DeMark.

The history of collecting smoky quartz from alpine clefts in Switzerland stretches back centuries, with organized tracking by local crystal seekers documented from the sixteenth century onward. These high-altitude deposits are discovered opportunistically by independent prospectors or exposed intermittently through major engineering projects like hydroelectric tunnel excavation, such as the famous 1974 discovery at Gerstenegg. Geologically, these crystals form within open alpine fissures, or clefts, created by intense tectonic pressures and regional uplift during the Alpine orogeny. Deep within crystalline basement rocks like the Aar Massif, hot metamorphic hydrothermal solutions slowly precipitated silica over millions of years, while natural radiation from surrounding host rocks imparted the characteristic brown to near-opaque color onto the growing quartz crystals.

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