Description

This piece features fanned aggregates of black tourmaline crystals frozen in quartz. Upon close examination, one can see that a small number of crystals are disjoined – this is the phenomenon John described in his “Disjoined Crystals” article in Rocks & Minerals 93:3, May-June 2018, pp.274-75, where crystals contained in rock that has been subjected to intense heat and stress in metamorphism will stretch laterally and remain oriented in the recrystallized host rock.  John personally collected this specimen and the back has been trimmed with a saw. With strong light and magnification, one can see occasional brown glints in the tourmaline. A neat specimen from the Maryland suite of the John S. White Collection.