2003, May, Skeletal Quartz, Cap Quartz
After my beautiful finds in the Diepalgraben there were no more trips because I started building an extension to my house. In the middle of May, after many intensive days at work, I simply had to take a break. I spontaneously decided to look at the rear area of a gorge in the Zederhaus Valley. On an earlier trip there, I had discovered an area of green schist with an exploited cleft. At that time, however, I did not have enough time to examine this zone closely.
After about an hour of walking in the steep terrain, I reached the green schist zone. I started my search right away and soon saw a few suspicious signs. It was just a sign, but my senses put on alert. I descended a few meters near the stream next to the rock. When I turned the corner, I could see a strong distortion of the green schist about 3 meters above me. A cleft seemed to open below the distortion. I was able to reach the place without any problems and I managed to build a safe platform from which to work.
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Clearly recognizable disorder of the green schist, with a cavity underneath
To my delight, I found that an open cleft lay before me. The first quartz crystals and fragments of quartz crystals lay freely visible in the chlorite and clay in the not too large cleft. When I picked up the first crystal, I immediately noticed something special: The quartz crystal had a stepped tip (cap). It seemed as if the crystal had stopped growing. Then a relatively large amount of chlorite settled on the tip and finally the quartz crystal continued to grow. Finally the crystal began to dissolve again. These quartz crystals show a stronger color in the upper area due to the enclosed chlorite.
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Quartz crystal with a second tip (cap), 6.5 x 4 x 3 cm
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I liked this piece very much because it was so extraordinary and for me it was a new kind of green-schist quartz. With one of the next pieces I was able to remove the upper crystal area directly and put it back on like a cap. That's why I immediately started calling these pieces "cap quartz", all of which was very satisfying. When I carefully removed the chlorite in the lower area of the cleft, I was able to find something extraordinary: etched quartz crystals. They were high-quality skeletal quartz crystals showing a wonderful translucent light yellow-green color, high gloss, and excellent transparency. The pieces reached a maximum size of 8.5 cm. Calcites were present on the side of the cleft. But the calcites were very intensely etched and not sufficiently aesthetically pleasing to warrant carrying back.
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The disruption of green schist was particularly pronounced in this cleft. While the schist in the lower area was almost horizontal, the schist in the upper area was vertical. The cap quartzes were in the upper left area, the skeletonized crystals were in the narrow right area that pulls down. There was no chlorite in the upper narrow cleft area and white skeleton crystals came from there.
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Dissolved quartz crystal from the upper part of the gap, 5.8 x 3.5 x 2.5 cm
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Detached cap from a slightly larger crystal, 4.2 x 2.7 x 2 cm
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The largest skeletonized crystal from the upper part of the narrow cleft part, 8.5 x 7 x 5 cm
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Light yellow-green skeleton quartz: 5 x 4.8 x 2.5 cm
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Light yellow-green skeleton quartz: 3.9 x 3.7 x 2.7 cm
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