Alpine Minerals

It's been my passion for many years now to find quartz crystals and other minerals in the Alps. Most pictures are taken by smartphone. Some were taken with a magnifying-glass taped in front of the lens. Lo-fi is fun!

°Quartz alps amethyst crystals minerals Nature Photography rocks

To find crystals you generally need to venture into the wild. The remaining glaciers and imposing mountains are fantastic! There is a lot of army debris strewn around though. I hate that! Looking for minerals in even the most remote locations you find these artefacts of human stupidity.

Quartz comes in many different shapes. Some are characteristic of only small regions or certain valleys. Quartz from the northern part of the alps has parallel side surfaces like this specimen.

Quartz from the southern part of the alps often has side surfaces that converge towards the top.

Slightly smoky quartz in the so-called Binntal Habitus

(with the converging sides).

A classic quartz cluster in the «Normal Habitus».

Not all quartz crystals grew connected to bedrock. These often are double terminated. This crystal formed a cross with a second point growing across it.

Double terminated quartz crystal with two different types of terminations and a second generation of smaller crystals growing on one surface.

This clear quartz crystal has a rare extra surface on one of it's corners.

A very «wild» quartz cluster with greenish chlorite on some surfaces.

Sometimes quartz is inhibited from growing into it's natural shape by an other mineral taking up the space. The second mineral – usually calcite – is often dissolved millions of years before the stones are found. I love these strange shapes. This one reminds me of a horses head. The green dust on the surface is a second mineral called chlorite.

Another quartz crystal with imprints of calcite on it's surfaces and chlorite inclusions inside the quartz.

A quartz crystal with an imprint of an adularia crystal on one of its termination surfaces.

This is a quartz crystal with a second mineral enclosed inside. The fibrous green hair is a mineral called byssolite, a natural form of asbestos.

When you look closely this quartz crystal has a twist to it. This form of growth is called a gwindel. A word derived from the German «gewunden» which actually means twisted. This is a very rare variety of quartz growth and to my knowledge there is still no conclusive theory, why this happens.

A perfectly clear gwindel. Most gwindels are smoky in colour.

Detail of the terminations on the side of a gwindel.

Another neat clear quartz gwindel. Smoky quartz gwindels are very rare, but the clear ones are possibly ten times more rare.

This growth form of quartz is called needle quartz. Some clusters can look like a hedgehog.

A adouble terminated smoky quartz crystal with needles of anhydrite included.

Anhydrite needles in quartz

Here's a closer look at the anhydrite inclusions. Perfect little monoliths.

Another smoky quartz with an anhydrite needle passing through it's core.

Very dark smoky quartz is called morion. Smoky quartz only occurs in slightly radioactive bedrock like granite. The more radioactivity they were exposed to, the darker they are.

An interestingly shaped smoky quartz cluster with green chlorite etched into the termination surfaces.

A so-called window quartz with a dark inclusion, possibly carbon or oil.

Amethyst is a variety of quartz, that is extremely rare in the alps. It is quartz with iron inclusions that turned purple after exposure to radiation from the bedrock.

Once cleaned the fascinating shapes and colours come out.

Amethyst can form fantastic little sculptures with wildly etched surfaces.

The purple clouds in the stone reveal the iron inclusions in the quartz crystal grid.

Each alpine amethyst is a little natural sculpture.

Alpine amethyst with strong purple colour.

Amethyst mostly occurs in a so-called sceptre shape, where the amethyst will grow on top, or over a pre-existing crystal.

A flat quartz crystal with a singlular rutile needle on it's inside. Rutile is a titanium oxide.

Quartz crystal with intergrown black tourmaline needles. Black tourmaline is called schörl.

The green trapezoidal shapes are adularia or feldspar. The green colour stems from the chlorite that has etched itself into the surface of these normally white crystals. Inbetween the adularia there are some honey-coloured to pinkish points of titanite, a titanium oxide.

White adularia crystals with amiant «hair» between them. The hairlike amiant comprises of incredibly thin crystals that are actually slightly flexible. But don't touch – amiant is a naturally occurring form of asbestos.