1.6" Orange Wulfenite Crystals on Quartz - Rowley Mine, Arizona

This is a gorgeous, 1.6" wide specimen of orange wulfenite crystals that formed from a bed of druzy quartz. It was collected from the Rowley Mine in Arizona.

Wulfenite is a lead-based molybdate mineral with a chemical formula Pb(MoO4). It forms as a secondary mineral in the oxidation zones of hydrothermal lead deposits, its color ranging anywhere between yellow to bright orange and red and occasionally brown. Typically forming as tabular, stubby, or pyramidal crystals, this unique mineral can be both brilliantly transparent and opaque.

While these crystals are safe to hold, due to the fact that they are lead-based we strongly recommend washing your hands after handling.

Quartz is the name given to silicon dioxide (SiO2) and is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust. Quartz crystals generally grow in silica-rich environments--usually igneous rocks or hydrothermal environments like geothermal waters--at temperatures between 100°C and 450°C, and usually under very high pressure. In either case, crystals will precipitate as temperatures cool, just as ice gradually forms when water freezes. Quartz veins are formed when open fissures are filled with hot water during the closing stages of mountain formation: these veins can be hundreds of millions of years old.
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DETAILS
SPECIES
Wulfenite & Quartz
LOCATION
Rowley Mine, near Theba, Maricopa County, Arizona
SIZE
1.6" wide
CATEGORY
ITEM
#118963