Herkimer ( Diamond ) Quartz
HERKIMER DIAMONDS, brilliant, water clear quartz crystals composed of silicon dioxide, hard enough to scratch glass. They are of a hexagonal structure and doubly terminated - (points on both ends).
Dolomite limestone is the rock formation in which they are found. This rock was buried ages ago. Subsequently, surface water containing silicon seeped downward through the earth and was trapped in pockets or cavities in the dolomite rock. Under tremendous heat and pressure these crystals were formed. Weathering and erosion by glaciers and water have exposed the strata in Middleville, New York. the crystals are found mostly in rock cavities formed approximately four hundred million years ago.
The name Herkimer Diamond came about because to the untrained eye the sparkling crystals look like real diamonds and since these unique crystals are found in Herkimer County, named after the Revolutionary War General Nicholas Herkimer thus the name Herkimer Diamonds. Additionally, the Mohawk Indians, native to this area, are known as "The People of the Crystals".
True Herkimer quartz is only found in one area of upstate N.Y.. There are clean double terminated quartz crystals being found in China, but they do not compare to these fine crystals in matrix.
Herkimer quartz crystals are prized by people in the metaphysical fields as being the purist quartz on earth. Most crystals are removed from the matrix, so good clean crystals in matrix are getting very hard to find.
