St Gotthard pass area (Central St Gotthard Massif)
46.6411° N, 8.4183° E · ± 10 km
Smoky quartz from Ticino, Switzerland, with photos of specimens from this locality.
Minerals found here
Smoky quartz at St Gotthard pass area (Central St Gotthard Massif)
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
Photo: Robert M. Lavinsky · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Source
- Formula
- SiO₂
- Morphology
- Single crystals and groups, including twisted gwindel crystals and naturally etched floaters
- Typical size
- Photographed specimens 5 to 9 cm
- Color / luster
- Smoky to brown, transparent, with sharp colour boundaries inside some crystals
- Associated minerals
- Adulariachlorite
- Surface features
- Chlorite frosting on selected faces; natural etching on some crystals
- Availability
- Unknown
- History
- Classic Alpine cleft locality; smoky colour attributed by a seller page to natural irradiation
Geology of the locality
- Setting
- Alpine cleft quartz area in the central St Gotthard Massif; clefts formed in gneisses, schists and granites during Alpine compression.
- Region
- Ticino
- Country
- Switzerland
Coordinates are the centre point given for the Saint-Gotthard Massif on Wikipedia, so this is area-level only. Photo labels name the pass area of the massif, not a single cleft.
Sources
- SRC-435 · Website
Saint-Gotthard MassifWikipedia contributors · Wikipedia - SRC-436 · Website
Alpine (encyclopedia entry)SkyJems · SkyJems - SRC-437 · Website
Central St Gotthard MassifAlbion Fire and Ice · Albion Fire and Ice - SRC-446 · Website
File:Quartz-160063.jpg and related St Gotthard files (Robert M. Lavinsky)Wikimedia Commons · Wikimedia Commons
Draft data from the Provenite workbook. Check entries against the cited sources before relying on them. Photos are open-licence images from Wikimedia Commons; the author and licence are given with each photo.