Mineral: Hydrothermally Grown Synthetic Silicon Dioxide
Description: R&D XTALS LLC, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, United States 30 cm x 15 cm x 6 cm This specimen (JKB533) was probably one of the specimens that took the longest in terms to completely crystallize in its current state and was one of the “early specimens”. Like a similar specimen pictured in Clifford and Klipov (2015), this specimen has masses of randomly oriented crystals and a slight pinkish color at the base of the quartz. One thing that isn’t obvious unless you look at similar specimens is that the overall shape of the specimen (not the quartz points themselves) follows a rough semi-circular shape. The reason for this shape is because the autoclaves themselves are round. Like many of Vlad specimens, it takes multiple runs to get a specimen to look like this and then of course there is the time factor. This specimen took approximately five years from start to finish.

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