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GeneralBIG Crystals

24th Dec 2019 18:21 UTCChris Emproto

Got a surprisingly sizable specimen to share? Post it here! Even if it’s still “small”, as long as it’s impressive for the species, let’s see it. I’ll start with a massive 500lb fluorapatite from the Emerald Mine in Quebec in the Canadian Museum of Nature collection. 182cm nerd for scale.

25th Dec 2019 18:42 UTCMichael Grieve

Willow, the Official Mine Dog of the Purple Haze Amethyst mine in Thunder Bay, checks out a 35cm amethyst crystal. The crystal, collected from Two Dog Vug in 2017, cleaned up to have a bright red hematite coating on the termination, typical of many specimens from the area.

25th Dec 2019 19:13 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

This used to be a 14-cm crystal of halite, but it's now a gypsum cast after halite from the Glass Mts, Major Co., Oklahoma, USA, Mindat photos #827765 et seq. The gypsum appears to be monocrystalline--although the specimen is mostly coated with clay, small parallel crystal faces all over the specimen flash in unison as it is turned in the light. It came from the collection of Josephine Scholl of Windham, Maine; she acquired it in the late 1960s from Lowell Cushing. There is more about the Scholl collection at www.mainemineralclub.org/s/SchollCatalog2019.pdf

26th Dec 2019 18:29 UTCChris Emproto

Very cool. Never seen one so large before!

25th Dec 2019 19:46 UTCJohannes Swarts

There used to be a website called "The Giant Crystal Project", which contained articles, photos, and lists of the largest authenticated examples of various mineral crystals. It appears to be offline/extinct - it was a very interesting site to visit.

Hans

25th Dec 2019 19:49 UTCJohannes Swarts

Interesting - there are a lot of photos on Pinterest that show very large crystals. Some of them are tagged "The Giant Crystal Project".

Might be some info that could could be collated into a Mindat discussion group...

25th Dec 2019 20:34 UTCcascaillou

The french museum of natural history has a good collection of giant crystals,, see linked picture below:

https://www.parisinfo.com/var/otcp/sites/images/node_43/node_51/node_77884/node_77888/galerie-de-mineralogie-et-de-geologie-museum-national-d-histoire-naturelle-pierres-%7C-630x405-%7C-%C2%A9-mnhn-b-faye/16846662-1-fre-FR/Galerie-de-Mineralogie-et-de-Geologie-Museum-national-d-Histoire-naturelle-Pierres-%7C-630x405-%7C-%C2%A9-MNHN-B-Faye.jpg

25th Dec 2019 22:10 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Go back in time (via the Way Back Machine website) to the Giant Crystal Project:

http://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/sitemap.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">web.archive.org/web/20161119043525/http://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/sitemap.htm

Edit: I can't seem to get the correct web address to display. Copy and paste everything after http://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/sitemap.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> into your address bar. If you start with web.archi... (etc) it should work.

The photo above was taken in September at one of the outside tents at the 2019 Coluseum Show, one of the events taking place in Denver, Colorado, USA. A few decent sized quartz crystals and clusters were available.

25th Dec 2019 22:30 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

The big horizontal silvery things between the quartz crystals and the tent--not giant cylindrite crystals, I assume . . . .

25th Dec 2019 22:53 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Cylindrite? Maybe!

By the way, that's the largest gypsum after halite that I've seen!

26th Dec 2019 06:13 UTCHerwig Pelckmans

Quartz, Halite

Jichka, Morocco

Casts after large halite crystals are also known from Morocco, like this one.

Cheers, Herwig

26th Dec 2019 15:04 UTCMax Bürgi

Big smoky quartz, tip covered with small pale green tourmaline. From Havey Quarry in Poland, Androscoggin Co., Maine. August 2018

26th Dec 2019 18:23 UTCEch Noch

That’s really cool!

28th Dec 2019 00:32 UTCFiona Han

Good

26th Dec 2019 18:23 UTCEch Noch

110lb Smoky Quartz next to 7gal bucket for scale. Self collected in Northern California.

26th Dec 2019 19:51 UTCAlfredo Petrov Manager

I must hunt for an old photo I have somewhere of a 17 TON quartz crystal from Uganda. The Ugandans have wrapped a thick steel chain around it and are dragging it across the ground with a bulldozer. Large "dings" of course inevitable.

26th Dec 2019 21:22 UTCEch Noch

That’s wild! I’d imagine that it wasn’t worth more than material for cutting after that trip. Haha it’s amazing to see how the Brazilians move the big ones they pull out.

26th Dec 2019 23:11 UTCDaniel J. Evanich 🌟 Expert

Single covellite crystal from Butte, Montana, measuring over 2-1/2" across (6.6cm).

29th Dec 2019 18:07 UTCEch Noch

Very nice Covellite!

27th Dec 2019 01:22 UTCPaul Brandes 🌟 Manager

Not necessarily a big "crystal" (unless you count the knob on top), but it is a big chunk of native copper recovered in 2001 from Great Sand Bay in Lake Superior. This photo was when the specimen was displayed at Quincy Mine in Hancock. Today, the mass is displayed outside the A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum in Houghton.

27th Dec 2019 02:07 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

One of my favorite photos of some Brazilian topaz specimens at the Smithsonian.

https://geogallery.si.edu/10002803/topaz

28th Dec 2019 14:44 UTCChris Emproto

I remember that photo in the Smithsonian guides I read growing up. Always blew my mind!

27th Dec 2019 02:54 UTCDon Windeler

This is a picture taken 2017 in Swakopmund, Namibia at the Kristall Galerie museum. My friend and fellow traveler John Sulzbach for scale. I don't have the specifics in my notes, but other folks on the internet note that it was found 1985 in Farm Otjua, Karibib district.

Cheers,

27th Dec 2019 12:40 UTCChris Rayburn

I love that covellite Daniel!

I posted this a couple of years ago on a pseudomorph thread. It seems to fit here too. This is a big, ugly, single cube of goethite (limonite) ps. pyrite from Missouri Hill, Chaffee Co., CO. I liberated it in August 2017. 19 x 17 x 16 cm, weighs just under 20 kg.

27th Dec 2019 16:17 UTCTony Albini

Someone in New Mexico should try to get a photos of the multimeter long spodumene crystals at the Harding mine and pictured in Fred Pough's classic Field Guide book. Also, check out The David Friend Hall at Yale's Peabody Museum for huge crystals.

27th Dec 2019 23:30 UTCDaniel J. Evanich 🌟 Expert

Thanks, Chris. The Covellite came from a 1960's collection. It's about 15mm thick and complete.

27th Dec 2019 16:52 UTCJohan Kjellman Expert

Etta mine spodumene comes to mind,

here is one:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333907113_Giant_spodumene_and_montebrasite_crystals_from_the_Plumbago_North_pegmatite_Oxford_County_Maine/figures?lo=1

the iconic image is on this link:

http://www.alexstrekeisen.it/english/pluto/spodumene.php

cheers

27th Dec 2019 19:02 UTCcascaillou

Corundum, mounted on wood base

https://www.geoforum.fr/uploads/monthly_2019_12/4C94F1E0-4BCD-4BCB-9F3F-23EFF2789D17.jpeg.34edee15f583ad12c42f27aa5ac83f86.jpeg

15 tons.

27th Dec 2019 23:50 UTCcascaillou

life inside a mineral specimen....

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5a/0c/93/5a0c9337f0ee8503958065748abdd7c1.jpg

http://cdn.tourismontheedge.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/article-1081072-02464596000005DC-280_636x9441.jpg

28th Dec 2019 00:29 UTCJamison K. Brizendine 🌟 Expert

The Crystal Cave in Put-in-Bay Island in Ohio produced some of the largest celestine crystals in the world. Here is one example from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's collection:

28th Dec 2019 06:48 UTCcascaillou

giant crystals website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20161118015913/http://giantcrystals.strahlen.org/indexneu.htm

28th Dec 2019 21:44 UTCRonnie Van Dommelen 🌟 Manager

Natrolite

Khibiny Massif, Murmansk Oblast, Russia

Thought to be world's largest natrolite crystal.

29th Dec 2019 06:05 UTCKeith Compton 🌟 Manager

Amazing Natrolite

28th Dec 2019 22:10 UTCRonnie Van Dommelen 🌟 Manager

Chabazite from Nova Scotia, about 4.5 cm on edge. They get a bit bigger here but not a lot.

29th Dec 2019 14:06 UTCChris Emproto

Here is a somewhat well-known one: a ~190cm ‘biotite’ crystal section from the Purdy Mine, Ontario. On display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.

29th Dec 2019 17:33 UTCcascaillou

another big mica (in very good shape):

https://www.geoforum.fr/uploads/monthly_2018_07/20170504_114150.thumb.jpg.b1fe9b6f6768695e4145e6ced0859f4a.jpg

30th Dec 2019 19:06 UTCLuís Martins 🌟

Where is this one from?

30th Dec 2019 15:17 UTCChris Emproto

A 32cm wollastonite crystal seen at the Mulvaney Property, St. Lawrence Countt, New York. Unfortunately destroyed by amateur collectors using chisels to pry it off of the wall.

31st Dec 2019 13:49 UTCEd Clopton 🌟 Expert

Beryl

Bumpus Quarry, Albany, Oxford County, Maine, USA

Uploaded by Vandall Thomas King

Large beryl crystals in situ at the Bumpus mine, Albany, Maine, photographed in 1929.

1st Jan 2020 04:18 UTCEric He

A molybdenite crystal 14cm across in quartz matrix. Crown Point mine, Chelan County, Washington, USA.

1st Jan 2020 21:34 UTCEch Noch

That thing is awesome Eric!

2nd Jan 2020 17:05 UTCChris Rayburn

I'll second that...fantastic molybdenite Eric.

6th Jan 2020 08:28 UTCBruce Cairncross Expert

Here's a photo I took of what is possibly the second largest baryte crystal known. It measures 70 cm in length and 30 cm across the base and weighs 64 kg. There are a few attached galena and quartz crystals. It was collected in July 1997 by Brenda Rademeyer who was the geologist at the Witwatersrand goldfield Elandsrand gold mine. This specimen and others came from a 1.3 metre cavity in the footwall of an area in the mine where they were exploiting the Ventersdorp Contact reef, at a depth of 2,650 metres below surface. A second baryte crystal collected at the same time was even larger, measuring 83 cm long and 25.5 cm wide, and weighs 76.5 kg. This broke into three pieces but was still salvaged. To my knowledge, both specimens are on display in the mine offices. An article was published on this discovery in the Mineralogical Record 2001 (vol. 32) 177-180. Its somewhat odd that these giant baryte crystals came from the largest gold deposit on Earth!

15th Jul 2021 12:35 UTCTimothy Greenland

There were some enormous baryte crystals found at the Silverband mine (Westmorland, Enland) back in the 1960s. There was one at the mine office that weighed many tons (according to the manager). I have a small specimen about 25 cms long, but the biggest ones were several feet across...

Cheers

Tim

15th Jul 2021 12:39 UTCTimothy Greenland

Sorry - I typed "Westmorland" and it should have been "Cumbria"

Tim

6th Jan 2020 15:50 UTCTony Albini

Chris, Bruce et. al., at the Peabody Museum at Yale University, I saw a cluster of huge white Baryte crystals from Cheshire, CT, USA, probably from the Jinny Hill Quarry. A few hundred pounds specimen. There were at least 5 localities in the town. If I remember correctly the white baryte was used for paint products.

23rd Jan 2020 03:51 UTCClifford Trebilcock

Here is a scan of photo from 1986 of a very large single terminated Amethyst crystal from Long Mountain in Stark, Coos County, New Hampshire. It was collected by Peter Samuelson in 1986 measures 55 X 45 X 40 cm and weighed 87 pounds. The coin by the base is about one inch across. This is the largest single Amethyst crystal I have seen from any location.

Cliff Trebilcock

23rd Jan 2020 10:20 UTCEch Noch

Wow! That’s impressive!!! I’d be curious where that one ended up.

23rd Jan 2020 12:27 UTCClifford Trebilcock

Jobe,

Last I heard it was sold to a private collector in New Hampshire.

Cliff

24th Apr 2020 20:43 UTCcascaillou

Giant 360kg artifical crystal of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP):

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/5/28/1243527790218/NIF-National-Ignition-Fac-003.jpg?width=1920&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2ee6d22ffd02bc858e696627b536fa65

24th Apr 2020 21:49 UTCBob Harman

"BIG" is relative. This MILLERITE spray is one of Indiana's largest known. Some of the strands are over 5 cm in length. BOB

24th Apr 2020 21:53 UTCBob Harman

Again "Big" is relative. One of Indiana's largest and finest aragonite specimens. A full 7.5 cm long. Formerly in my collection, now on display in The Indiana State Museum. BOB

24th Apr 2020 22:00 UTCBob Harman

One of the biggest known doubly terminated celestine crystals from Madagascar. This 9.5 cm crystal, seen best at the lower 5 o'clock -7 o'clock position, was not recognized as such by the seller at the 2005 Tucson Show. This very large example was a bargain with that unique crystal. The example weighs over 45 pounds. BOB

24th Apr 2020 22:06 UTCBob Harman

Strictly speaking a rock structure rather than a crystal, this 347 lb geode from Washington County is one of Indiana's largest known examples. When opened, these very large examples are most often not very fresh with no secondary minerals. BOB

25th Apr 2020 17:29 UTCMatt Courville

I wonder if anyone has thought to drill a hole and send a scope camera inside this?????

15th Jul 2021 09:03 UTCTim Saunderson

7.5cm quartz crystal with very rare true pinacoid termination. From Aktas, Kazakhstan

15th Jul 2021 15:52 UTCTony Nikischer 🌟 Manager

Here is a 43 cm long terminated stibnite crystal from Xikuangshan, Hunan Province, China. The specimen is featured in a Mineral News article (july, 2021 issue, Vol. 37 No. 7)

15th Jul 2021 17:20 UTCRolf Luetcke Expert

Elmwood piece, about as big as I have seen in a single specimen, 50 by 35 cm in size and takes two people to lift the piece. As some fluorite and white baryte besides the background sphalerite. Piece is on our museum.

15th Jul 2021 17:54 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Rolf, I was fortunate and got the opportunity to collect in Elmwood Mine. I can tell you that some of the pockets are huge, as are the specimens. One of the pockets that I collected in had numerous sphalerite pieces that were about 5 feet across and a foot thick, "dotted" with baryte clusters to a foot wide! Fantastic to see, and absolutely impossible to move.

15th Jul 2021 17:47 UTCTony Nikischer 🌟 Manager

A monster Elmwood calcite, 30 inches tall (about 75 cm) that is our shop doorstop. It took three of us to move it!

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