Detailed information
Species
Epidote, Quartz
Dimensions
18 x 32 x 25
mm
Weight
18 g
Locality
Green Monster Mountain Prince of Wales Island Ketchikan District, Alaska, USA
Condition
No recorded repairs
The remote Green Monster Mountain on Prince of Wales Island at the southern end of Alaska is renowned for dramatic large Epidote crystals. The crystals are not your slender bladed prisms that one thinks about from places like Knappenwand in the European Alps, but stocky, wide prisms, but with pronounced sloping faces at their termination. What I have never been able to establish is whether the mountain was named after the large green Epidote crystals, or some other 'monster'. Either way, this locality is widely accepted to have produced the world's second-best Epidote crystals - after Knappenwand. This small miniature specimen is an individual dark green, to almost black prismatic crystal with a few small white 'needle' Quartz crystals protruding from the lower half on one side. The Epidote crystal is 3.2 cm tall and has great shape to it with just minor abrasion in a couple of places.