Enhydros Amethyst And Watermelon Tourmaline

Day 93: Back in the days when I was rockhounding, I had quite an extensive array of thumbnail and small mineral specimens on display in a cabinet. When I moved here over twenty years ago, I boxed them up and put them away "for keeps" in the garage. A few times each year, I find a reason to pull down the boxes, looking for some specific rock for some project or another, and occasionally, I can't bear to tuck a favorite out of sight again.

A few days ago, I discovered a tiny white plastic box in the back of my desk drawer while I was looking for the stapler. "Oh!" I said to self, "Is that where I put the watermelon tourmaline? That'd make a good macro subject!" But it seemed lonely all by itself, so I decided to include the amethyst.

Both of these crystals are unusual, although not expressly rare. Tourmaline crystals are long and thin, and have a crystal lattice which causes them to appear darker or lighter depending on the angle of view. The watermelon effect is only seen in cross-section, but if you were to view a full-length crystal from the outside, it would appear almost black. The green only becomes apparent when it is cut and viewed at 90° to the plane.

The amethyst is exceptional in that it is an enhydros, i.e., it contains small bubbles of water inside it, each with an even tinier air bubble floating along like the bubble in a carpenter's level. The water was trapped inside as the molten quartz cooled.

Although both of these specimens are small (the amethyst is about an inch long), they represent two of the oddest geologic novelties in my collection. They're not going out to the garage!