Mineral Mondays #74 Artichoke Quartz From The Arakawa Mina, Japan

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There is a mine in Akita-ken, Northern Japan, the Arakawa mine, that produces a special kind of quartz. It's called "Artichoke Quartz" for it's resemblance to an artichoke. The main crystals sit in a cover, leaves, of smaller quartz crystals giving it a vey unique look. Artichoke quartz, also known as Sprouting Quartz, falls under the Split Growth Quartz umbrella.


(Kept for our collection)

While at a mineral show in Tokyo last month I ran into a friend of mine, Mr. Wada, from Mineral Adventure. He showed me some quartz specimens he had mined earlier this year from the afore mentioned Arakawa mine. I immediately said I would but them and we negotiated a price. Here are the pieces I bought including the above specimen.

Most of these specimens are available on my Etsy shop if you would like to own one. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Rt395Minerals

Artichoke quartz is interesting because unlike other sprouting quartzes which have two growth phases, artichoke quartz crystals grow as a single growth. Each of the smaller crystals is a copy of the larger main crystal. This happens due to a defect in the crystal lattice, which can be caused by fast growth or impurities.

Here is a good video showing the different types of quartz and it's growth habits.

If you are interested in gems & minerals check out the world's best resource Mindat.org or ask me and I'll try to answer any questions you have. It's a wonderful world!

Thanks for reading!



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5 comments
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Wow! Very special quartz! Would love to hold one piece on my palm, just to test the healing energy.

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My pictures really can't capture just how awesome these are. My wife and I are going to try and go mine for them next spring. The mine is near her hometown. I'll send you one if we get any!

Thanks for the re-post!

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Wow! Both of you are going to find these angelic crystals in the near future! Oh! Great! I wish I could tag along, but that’s day dreaming.
The stones have angelic vibes! You could communicate with higher beings with these quartz crystals!
Thanks for being so generous. I don’t know if I deserve this stone.
From my past experience, I had been surprised by two crystal shop owners who, out of the blue, decided to gift me with the piece of quartz crystal I had admired inside his and her shops. They were both psychic and told me the stones wanted to go with me! Crazy and kind people!

Those were quite expensive stones and they knew I couldn’t afford to buy them. One of my dreams was to heal people with stones. But I am not ready for this calling yet, life had been too hectic. But I could do strange things with stones! I talked to stones!

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This is nice shoot and it look great.

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