Entry № 238
Hollandite Quartz
SiO₂ with Ba-Mn oxide inclusions
Clear quartz sown with black star-bursts.
Chakra
Crown · Third Eye
Element
Storm · Earth
Zodiac
Capricorn · Aquarius
I. The Metaphysical Reading
How the stone has been held.
Hollandite quartz is worked with as a stone of cosmic focus, held during star meditation and journeys of pattern recognition. The black rays are said to structure the amplifying field of quartz into readable direction.
- Chakra
- Crown · Third Eye
- Element
- Storm · Earth
- Zodiac
- Capricorn · Aquarius
- Keynote
- Clear quartz sown with black star-bursts.
II. The Scientific Reading
What the lattice actually does.
Hollandite quartz is macrocrystalline quartz containing radiating acicular sprays of hollandite, a barium-manganese oxide with a tunnel structure related to cryptomelane and coronadite. The inclusions crystallised in hydrothermal fluids that carried barium and manganese before or during quartz growth, becoming trapped as the silica lattice enclosed them. Most gem-grade material comes from pegmatitic pockets in Madagascar.
- Formula
- SiO₂ with Ba(Mn⁴⁺,Mn²⁺)₈O₁₆ inclusions
- System
- Trigonal (quartz); tetragonal (hollandite)
- Hardness
- 7 (Mohs, quartz host)
- Provenance
- Madagascar; also India, Brazil, Japan
References & Sources
Independent mineralogical references used to verify the scientific details above.
Mineral Profile
Fact Sheet
- Chemical Formula
- SiO₂ with Ba(Mn⁴⁺,Mn²⁺)₈O₁₆ inclusions
- Crystal System
- Trigonal (quartz); tetragonal (hollandite)
- Mohs Hardness
- 7 (Mohs, quartz host)
- Density
- 2.65 g/cm³ (host)
- Refractive Index
- 1.544 – 1.553
- Provenance
- Madagascar; also India, Brazil, Japan
- Color Origin
- Clear to smoky quartz with black radiating hollandite sprays
Related Crystals
Stones that share this lattice
Next in the Atlas
Honey Calcite
Warm-lit calcite the colour of poured amber.
