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Joan R.
Joined: 16 Mar 2007
Posts: 75
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Nov 29, 2007 11:17 Post subject: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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Mas Sever Quarry (Massabé Quarry, Can Massabé; Mas Ceber), Massabč, Sils, La Selva, Girona, Catalonia, Spain
41ş48,00.27"N
02ş42'52.27"E
In recent times, very interesting smoky quartz and amethyst crystals have been found close to Girona (Catalonia, Spain). This area is well-known to the Catalan collectors since several years ago but, due to the new works to build the Barcelona-French frontier railroad, some new pegmatitic cavities have been providing the best specimens on amethyst, smoky quartz and microcline ever seen.
Also the microcline crystals are really interesting from their crystallography, which is why Carles Curto, curator of the Barcelona Natural History Museum, is working to describe them.
Three years ago some local collectors were taking a look in the Massabé Quarry, close to Sils, and they found nice crystals, collecting on the new working quarry walls. 500 m to the north they visited a new quarry opened by the railroad company. They found there fine smoky quartz and amethyst specimens, as you can see in the attached pictures. During the several months they were visiting the quarry they collected the biggest quantity we could remember.
Nowadays you can find some samples but you must to work hard.
Bibliography: Mineral Up, Vol. I, Nr. 3 (2007)
https://www.mineralup.net/
Photograph: Joaquim Callén, Joan Rosell, David Soler and Fabre Minerals
Mineral: | Quartz (variety amethyst and smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 5 x 4 x 2,5 cm |
Description: |
Nice specimen with smooth and bright faces. The central part of faces has nearly Amethyst color but the zones near the edges have smoky tones. |
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98817 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Quartz (variety smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 15 cm high |
Description: |
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98845 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Quartz (variety smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 7 cm high |
Description: |
Smoky quartz with secondary quartz cabuchon, |
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98736 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Microcline with Albite and Quartz |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 3.8 × 1.6 × 1.4 cm |
Description: |
Esthetic growth of intense smoky Quartz crystals on a pinkish Microcline with a small group of white Albite crystals on the lower right side. |
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98704 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Microcline with Quartz (variety smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 5 cm width. |
Description: |
Microcline with smoky quartz. |
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98725 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Muscovite |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 5 cm width. |
Description: |
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98836 Time(s) |
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Mineral: | Quartz (variety amethyst and smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 4cm fv. |
Description: |
Sceptered amethyst on smoky quartz, |
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98788 Time(s) |
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Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Description: |
Left: Albite, Microcline and Quartz (variety smoky Quartz) 10cm high.
Right: Karlsbad law 3 cm high. |
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98769 Time(s) |
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_________________ Joan Rosell
lengenbach(.)com
Grup Mineralňgic Catalŕ |
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chris
Site Admin
Joined: 12 Jul 2007
Posts: 538
Location: Grenoble
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Posted: Nov 29, 2007 12:42 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Hello Joan,
Very nice. The amethyst scepter on top of the smoky is great. You can thank the railroad company for the opening of new cavities :-). Hope to see other pictures from time to time.
Christophe
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John S. White
Site Admin
Joined: 04 Sep 2006
Posts: 1298
Location: Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, USA
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Posted: Nov 30, 2007 05:27 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Indeed the amethyst scepter is wonderful, but I am more taken by the smoky quartz growing epitaxially on feldspar, one of the best examples I have seen of this phenomenon.
_________________ John S. White
aka Rondinaire |
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Carles Curto
Joined: 14 Sep 2006
Posts: 160
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Nov 30, 2007 07:02 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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And, what about so neat Baveno and Manebach twins? Nice.
John S. White wrote:
______________________________________________________________________
> Indeed the amethyst scepter is wonderful, but I am more taken by the smoky
> quartz growing epitaxially on feldspar, one of the best examples I have
> seen of this phenomenon.
______________________________________________________________________
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Joan R.
Joined: 16 Mar 2007
Posts: 75
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Dec 04, 2007 09:32 Post subject: 2005 Works on the amethyst quarry |
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Herewith attached you could find a very nice photo from the Massabé quarry. The author, David Soler, is going to publish some more photos and comments.
He knows very well the area.
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Drill workings in an area where blasting will be done in a few days. David Soler photo, September 2005. |
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98500 Time(s) |
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_________________ Joan Rosell
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Sergio
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 2
Location: Montcada i Reixac
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Posted: Dec 04, 2007 18:49 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Here are some pictures about Massabe Quarry. The quarry's photos are from 2005 (I forgot where are other recent photos I've taken there) I don't know how works this of uploading photos, so sorry if I do something wrong or strange... :)
P.S.: sorry for my poor english!
Description: |
One of my amethists from the railroad (it was a present from Joan Carles, the photo is not good, it was made by me, sorry :( , it has 2cm width) |
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98480 Time(s) |
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From left to right: Joan, Baltasar and Joan Carles trying to find a geode in a big planar pegmatite. Unluckily the geode didn't appear!! :( |
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98521 Time(s) |
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Description: |
Massabe Quarry in december 2005 |
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98511 Time(s) |
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_________________ Sergio Evangelio - Grup Mineralňgic Catalŕ |
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davidsoler
Joined: 05 Dec 2007
Posts: 2
Location: Girona, Catalonia
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Posted: Dec 05, 2007 15:37 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Dear all,
I am glad to join the forum. Here are some photographs of the Massabé quarry and the railroad workings in 2006. In a next message I will attach some mineral pics.
The Massabé quarry has been worked for about a decade and now, as far as I know, is near the end of the activity. Only the nearby workings for the high velocity train from Barcelona to the French border have perhaps extended the life of the site. It has become a first order locality in Catalonia because of the extreme high quality of quartz, feldspars and related species, as Joan has excellently illustrated. Thanks to the easy access and relative permisivity of the quarry management, many local collectors have been visiting the area regularly. Furthermore, some workers of the blasting companies who are aware of its mineral richness have been being the first persons to "collect" specimens after the blastings. As a result, some private collections could be rated amongst the best in Europe regarding variety and mineralogical interest of the pieces of amethyst, smoky quartz, microcline, albite, muscovite and so on (mine is not!). The more spectacular pieces are, of course, those of bigger sizes - I have seen a perfect half a meter smoky quartz crystal in a private collector. Nevertheless, for those who also apreciate beauty in small samples, some thumbnail pieces are noteworthy.
The future of the locality is uncertain. The outcrops opened by the railroad workings will soon be covered, and perhaps the quarry will cease activity in a few years. So keep your samples carefully!
David
Description: |
A typical cavity found at the blocks that are temporarily stored in the quarry. Note the Carlsbad twin in microcline, surrounded by many other small quartz, albite and muscovite |
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98450 Time(s) |
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One of the railroad new outcrops. Left: medium to coarse grained leucogranite which has yielded crystallized minerals. Lower right: Miocene arkoses. Upper right: Miocene basalt lava flows, without mineralogical interest. |
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98457 Time(s) |
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It's me in a pile of granite blocks after a blast. |
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98482 Time(s) |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Dec 05, 2007 16:04 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Lovely photos and very fine explanations David. Thanks to participate on this forum!
Jordi
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davidsoler
Joined: 05 Dec 2007
Posts: 2
Location: Girona, Catalonia
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Posted: Dec 06, 2007 06:20 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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Thank you Jordi.
Here are two pics of thumbnail pieces that corroborate the mineralogical interest of the finds at Massabé Quarry.
David
Description: |
A specimen showing a Baveno twin (left) with two attached small quartz crystals, a non-penetrating Carlsbad twin (front) and an untwinned crystal of microcline. Biggest crystal (Baveno twin) measures 1.5 cm long. David Soler specimen and photo, 2006. |
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98420 Time(s) |
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White-transparent albite crystal, 3 mm. David Soler specimen and photo, 2006. |
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98403 Time(s) |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: Dec 23, 2007 07:12 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spa |
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A recent view of the Massabé Quarry:
Description: |
Mas Sever Quarry (Massabé Quarry) - November 2007 Photo: Pepe |
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98203 Time(s) |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: May 10, 2015 15:14 Post subject: Very nice Catalonian Amethyst and sinergy |
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One of the good things of a publication on line is its capacity to actualize info as well as establish some kind of synergy with the paper publications, in this case with the recent publication in the Mineralogical Record of an article from Simone and Peter Huber about the Mineral collection of Eleanore von Raab.
Eleanore von Raab was a member of a distinguished Carintian (Austrian) family and she built a fine collection in the XVIII century with the help of a great mineralogist, the Baron Ignaz von Born. You can know more about this collection as well as many other interesting topics in the March-April 2015 issue, volume 46, number 2 of the Mineralogical Record
In the page 287 of this article is pictured a photo of a Quartz amethyst, photo that you can see below. The caption of this photo says that this Quartz is labeled as from "Vic en Catalogne". This is French language and it means in English language: "Vic in Catalonia". Well, Vic is a Catalonian city and capital of the Osona comarca (county), it is a big city and geographically is located not so far to the Montseny Range, which is the classic Catalonian area for amethysts, so no doubts that the "Vic en Catalogne" correspond to one of the Montseny Catalonian amethyst also described in this thread. In previous posts of this thread you will find images of very similar amethysts found in the modern times and voilŕ! a historical specimen resurrect through its publication in a magazine and then we can fix its real locality as well as complete the information of this locality with more historical info!
BTW, if you want to know more about the historic amethyst from Montseny you can read this extraordinary thread: Amatistas en Catalunya - (67) published by Frederic Varela in the Spanish side of FMF, and in Spanish language. You can use the Google translator located in the top of every page to translate the whole article to English language. Don't miss it!
Description: |
Page 287 of the March-April 2015 issue, volume 46, number 2 of the Mineralogical Record magazine.
Published with the kind permission of the Mineralogical Record. |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: May 10, 2015 16:30 Post subject: Re: Very nice Catalonian Amethyst and sinergy |
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Another example
Mineral: | Quartz (variety amethyst) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | Specimen size: 6.4 × 3.9 × 2.5 cm / main crystal size: 3.7 × 2.3 cm |
Description: |
Mined in October 2004 Parallel growth of crystals with a lot of very well marked scepter growths, some of them doubly terminated. |
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76967 Time(s) |
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marco campos-venuti
Joined: 09 Apr 2014
Posts: 208
Location: Sevilla
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Posted: May 11, 2015 03:24 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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This is a quite unusual orthoclase twin from Cantera Massabé.
Mineral: | Microcline with Quartz (variety smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Mas Sever Quarry, Massabč (Mas Ceber), Sils, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | 6 cm |
Description: |
Microcline twinned crystal with Quartz (variety smoky quartz) |
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76730 Time(s) |
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Jordi Fabre
Overall coordinator of the Forum
Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 4931
Location: Barcelona
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Posted: May 11, 2015 04:34 Post subject: Re: Very nice Catalonian Amethyst and sinergy |
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And one specimen from the workings nearby Massabé for the high velocity train from Barcelona to the French border.
These workings are currently defunct and even scenically coated.
Mineral: | Quartz (variety amethyst and smoky quartz) |
Locality: | Soliva Quarry (AVE Quarry works), Can Sala, Riudarenes, Comarca La Selva, Gerona / Girona, Catalonia / Catalunya, Spain | |
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Dimensions: | Specimen size: 6.5 × 3.5 × 2.9 cm |
Description: |
Parallel growth of a brilliant doubly terminated crystal group with a pale but uniform color. The group forms a scepter on a deep smoky Quartz crystal. |
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76785 Time(s) |
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Josele
Joined: 10 Apr 2012
Posts: 410
Location: Tarifa, Spain
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Posted: May 11, 2015 11:22 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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marco campos-venuti wrote: | This is a quite unusual orthoclase twin from Cantera Massabé. |
An interesting piece that would merit more and better pictures!
Marco, can not see details in this only photo, is a Baveno twin with displaced twin plane?
_________________ Josele |
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Pete Richards
Site Admin
Joined: 29 Dec 2008
Posts: 834
Location: Northeast Ohio
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Posted: May 11, 2015 14:49 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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Josele wrote: | marco campos-venuti wrote: | This is a quite unusual orthoclase twin from Cantera Massabé. |
An interesting piece that would merit more and better pictures!
Marco, can not see details in this only photo, is a Baveno twin with displaced twin plane? |
Feldspar twins are not my strongest suit, but it appears to me to be a Manebach twin.
_________________ Collecting and studying crystals with interesting habits, twinning, and epitaxy |
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Josele
Joined: 10 Apr 2012
Posts: 410
Location: Tarifa, Spain
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Posted: May 11, 2015 16:02 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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Thank you Pete, I am unable to recognize Manebach twins, maybe because I have no one at home.
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Hans Cremers
Joined: 15 Sep 2021
Posts: 7
Location: Boxmeer
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Posted: Sep 20, 2021 08:40 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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Dear mineral collecting friends,
During the last months I have read this topic and some others regarding these locations near Girona.
Does anyone here know if it is still possible to collect nice specimens in the Massabé quarries and/or nearby quarries or natural locations?
I'm a collector (not a dealer) from the Netherlands and we are planning our trip to Spain for the coming fall.
We would like to visit one or more locations near Girona to search for smokey quartz / amethyst.
Any information on the possibility of collecting here is very much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!
P.S. if information is confidential, a PM will also work ;-)
Kind regards,
Hans Cremers
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James Catmur
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Hans Cremers
Joined: 15 Sep 2021
Posts: 7
Location: Boxmeer
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Posted: Sep 21, 2021 07:40 Post subject: Re: Very nice Amethyst in the Railroad Works in North of Spain |
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Dear James,
Thank you for your advice. Of course we will ask the quarry owner for permission before entering.
I was just wondering if anyone had some more up-to-date information about this locality, or possibly other less well known localities in the area.
All tips and advice are welcome. :-)
Kind regards,
Hans
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