www.GemstoneBasics.com

Photomicrography > Quartz > with fluorite inclusions
First draft: March 4^th, 2015 | Last update: March 16^th, 2016

Quartz with Fluorite
Amborompotsy, Madagascar

During late 2004, early 2005, only one single pocket of this material was discovered in Madagascar. Initially it appears to have been unclear as to where the pocket was found. Crystals and cut stones were presented as coming from Miandrivazo, which was not long thereafter corrected by the dealer.

The exact location is 17km northeast of the town of Amborompotsy in the Ambatofinandrahana District, Amoron'i Mania Region, Fianarantsoa Province. It produced about 300 kilograms of crystals (including scepter shapes) in sizes up to 23cm with fluorite (Koivula et al., 2005; Hyrsl & Niedermayr, 2007).

Centimeter-sized yellow, green, pink and violet fluorite inclusions in quartz are known from a number of deposits. White hemispherical fluorite-cristobalite intergrowths included in amethyst are found in basalts in southern Brazil and northern Uruguay (Hyrsl & Niedermayr, 2003; Gübelin & Koivula, 2005).

References and items of related interest

Gübelin, E.J. & Koivula, J.I. (2005). Photoatlas of Inclusions in Gemstones. Volume 2. Opinio Publishers, Basel, Switzerland, 829 p., ISBN 3-03999-029-2.

Hyrsl, J. & Niedermayr, G. (2003). Geheimnisvolle Welt: Einschlüsse im Quarz | Magic World: Inclusions in Quartz. Bode Verlag GmbH, Haltern, Germany, 240 p. ISBN 3-92509481-4 (in German | English).

Hyrsl, J. & Niedermayr, G. (2007). Einschlüsse im "Allerweltsmineral" Quarz. Mineralien Welt, Vol. 18, Issue 2, pp. 44-55 (in German).

Koivula, J.I., Calderon, M. & Laurs, B.M. (2005). Fluorite inclusions in quartz from Madagascar. Gems & Geology, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Summer), pp. 180-181.

More quartz references

Photomicrographs

Legend: FoV: Field-of-View; DoF: Total focusing depth; DF: darkfield; Obl: oblique illumination (fiber optics); Pol: polarising filter before objective; Sh: shadowing; TM: transmitted illumination, UVL: long-wave ultra-violet radiation; UVS: short-wave ultra-violet radiation; X-Pol: crossed polarising filters

Fluorite inclusion in a 3.92ct quartz from Amborompotsy, Madagascar
18x (FoV ± 6mm) Obl, DF, Pol

The fluorite's colour zoning is obvious in this 3.76ct quartz
18x (FoV ± 2.5mm) TM, X-Pol

Note the growth lines on this fluorite inclusion in this 1.82ct quartz
18x (FoV ± 6mm) Obl, DF, Pol

Home

Back to top of page