Quartz Crustal

[chucktx8]

Mr Badger dug this Quartz crystal up for me in N, NV. It has what looks like a sage bush growing inside, Was told it was copper crystals. I am not very sharp on minerals & rocks. I am sure there is some one on this forum that can tell us what it is. chuck

[chucktx8]

I goofed here is the image of the crystal, "I hope"

[guy19000]

weird very weird it looks like sand (not very good with minerals) it looks like the quartz has formed over the substance (the same with mosictoes millions of years ago when they get stuck in the tree sap)

[Tom in SWW]

I hope you thanked Mr. Badger! Very nice find.
Technically, what you have is a Quartz crystal with an inclusion, meaning that something is inside or included in it.
You can also call it a dendritic inclusion, as it looks tree or bush like.
Sometimes crystals form in an enclosed space and something gets in the way, and the crystal will partially or fully form around an object.
This could explain the inclusion. It may or may not be a Copper mineral inclusion.
The ones here is SWW tend to form inside cavities in the basaltic lava, which forms thick and viscous, thus retaining its gas and leaving an ideal environment for the formation of Agates, crystals, etc.
The smaller cavities here tend to poorly form crystals due to the way they are constricted, but they are still quite beautiful.
Back in North Carolina, I dug a lot of crystals from huge veins in rotting Dolomite (Magnesium Limestone).
The veins tended to look like crusts on the outside, and when you pried them open, you'd get showered with beautiful, gem quality well formed doubly terminated crystals.
Would love to get back there and find some more.
BTW: Badger holes, ant hills, etc. deserve a very close examination.
They will bring a lot of stuff to the surface, and by going through their detrius, you can figure out what's underneath you.
Ants especially will bring up small gems, and I suppose nuggets.
And if you find one crystal, there should be more!

HH! -Tom

[chucktx8]

I have a better understanding of how it happened , THANKS.
Not far from where I found the crystal, I found a 7 gram nugget. I seen a Jeep coming & being the first time at that location & not sure if I was on some ones claim, I droped down in this wash so as to be out of site & continued to hunt.
On the side of this wash was a fresh dug bager hole which I gave it a fast going over & got a wall to wall signal. Gold is where you find it. :-)

[Chris Bailey]

what a lovely story.........would love to be able to find crystals, love crystals........well done and keep hunting

[rip]

Very cool !How big is it ? If yall like crystals i have some on the auction ! Genuuuuwine ! herckimer diamonds.

[RingDancer]

I have found quartz crystal before but nothing like that. Very interesting piece, thanks for sharing pic!

Pat

[Tom in SWW]

Originally Posted by rip

Very cool !How big is it ? If yall like crystals i have some on the auction ! Genuuuuwine ! herckimer diamonds.

Hope to find some oneday... I was blessed with the gift of a small sample for my collection.
About the best I've done so far was back in North Carolina: Quartz deposited in huge cracks in the native stone.
At that site, the outer layers form huge plates. Most of them are milky, but some of the sections are perfectly clear.
The area between the plates fills up with doubly terminated crystals.
One day, I found the remanats of a rotted vein, and it amounted to about two cubic feet of the richest soil I've ever found! Every time I put my hammer into it, there was a virtual shower of gem quality doubly terminated crystals. It doesn't get any better than that!
Now that I'm on the West coast, I'm relegated (until I find a better site) to finding crystals that pop out of cavities in the rotting lava. They aren't as regularly formed as the NC crystals, but lots more of them are gemmy, and some have the most beautiful opalescence.
I don't think I could ever get tired of finding Quartz crystals!

HH! -Tom

[rip]

Hey Tom,I whent to N.C. as a kid with my parents and searched for saphires,rubys and emeralds at some of the mines.I found plenty of saphires and quartz crystals.One of the saphires was a nice one (the guy at the mine offered 20 bucks) but i took it home. like an idiot i put it in my fish tank.My brother cleaned out the tank and dumped it in the back yard.Needless to say i never saw it again.I still have a pouch of rocks and crystals my dad found.HH...Terry