Quartz with Hedenbergite

specimen number:
2102311

location:
Serifos Island, Cyclades, Greece

description:
Classic Greek specimen with lustrous deep green crystals of quartz to 3.5 cm in height coming off matrix. The green color due to the presence and inclusions of hedenbergite. In good condition.

Serifos Island, located in the Cyclades archipelago of Greece, is home to a world-class skarn deposit renowned for its unique mineral assemblage. Geologically, the deposit formed during the Miocene epoch when a granodiorite intrusion contact-metamorphosed surrounding Mesozoic limestones and marbles, creating a calcium-rich skarn environment. The island is most famous for its specimens of "prase," which is a variety of quartz colored a deep, leek-green by fine, needle-like inclusions of hedenbergite (a calcium iron silicate mineral). These quartz crystals often form as spectacular, artichoke-like clusters or elongated prisms where the green hedenbergite fibers are most concentrated at the base or within the core of the crystal. Historically, mining and quarrying on Serifos date back to antiquity, but modern industrial operations for iron ore (magnetite and hematite) began in the late 19th century, around 1861, and intensified under the French company "Societe des Mines de Seriphos-Spiliazeza" starting in the 1880s. Large-scale extraction continued through the early 20th century, particularly between 1885 and 1912, before a gradual decline led to the final cessation of commercial mining in 1963. Today, the abandoned mine workings and coastal quarries remain a site of intense interest for mineralogists studying the specific conditions that produced some of the finest green quartz specimens in the world.

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