Minerals with Willsey, Ep #2: Quartz

Quartz with Quartz inclusion - Zambia More info: https://www.irocks.com/minerals/specimen/52043 Quartz within quartz inclusions of single sharp crystals are very rare in nature, although somehow phantoms and zoned crystals occur more commonly as inclusions. The contrast is striking here and invites people to think about how these things might have formed over multiple stages of growth and perhaps millions of years of violent geological events. A fine, complete crystal of quartz is somehow frozen

Quartz with Quartz inclusion - Zambia More info: https://www.irocks.com/minerals/specimen/52038 Surprisingly, we rarely see quartz within quartz inclusions in nature. One would think that the formation of the same mineral over the previous crystal of quartz might, in the that and pressure, simply anneal over and erase the boundary, or dissolve the first quartz to mush. But, this is one of several specimens we found in the sphere market that had been carefully carved out from rough material origi