Strengite

specimen number:
1052747

location:
Pleystein, Neustadt an der Waldnaab, Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany

description:

Purple lustrous crystals of strengite to 0.4 cm in size throughout open pockets within this matrix. Nice classic old German specimen. The specimen comes with an antique label as shown at the end of the video. This label gives an original acquisition date of 1924.

The Kreuzberg pegmatite at Pleystein, situated in the Upper Palatinate region of Bavaria, Germany, was a historic open-quarry operation renowned for its complex granitic mineralization. Geologically, the site consists of a highly fractionated, zoned Variscan-age granitic pegmatite body that intruded into surrounding crystalline schists and gneisses, forming a prominent quartz-rich core that resists weathering. The intense differentiation of volatile-rich residual magmas concentrated high levels of phosphorus and manganese, which led to the development of an extensive suite of secondary phosphate minerals, including phosphosiderite, strengite, and beraunite, formed through the late-stage hydrothermal alteration of primary triphylite. Historically, commercial surface quarrying at the Kreuzberg hill began in 1841, focusing primarily on the extraction of high-grade quartz for the regional glass industry and feldspar for porcelain manufacture. Large-scale quarrying operations reached their peak during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but industrial extraction rapidly declined as the accessible pegmatite core was depleted, leading to the permanent cessation of all commercial quarrying activities by the 1950s when the locality was recognized for its geological significance and preserved as a natural monument.

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