There are a lot of verified giant crystal localities worldwide. But there are also a lot of rumours about giant and even super-giant crystals, which needs further examination and substantiation. Here we ask you for help ! In the following we will describe 'rumours' of that sort, which have been either sent to us or which we have discovered during literature surveys.
If you know more about any of these sites or if you have any personal images or photos showing these sites and the giant crystals, please let us know !
Past rumours from this site, that has been sucessfully solved :
Large celestite crystals in the Crystal Cave in Put-in-Bay, Ohio, solved thanks to M.Heilmann. For more information please click here.
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February,25th : Today we got an email from Peter. C. Rickwood - an authority in giant crystals, as you can see from his extremely informative publication - which reads :
Giant Garnet in Australia. I tried to follow that up some years ago and got
nowhere. I suspect it is apocryphal and it being based on a student project
makes me wonder whether they were making a joke. I have been in that area and
was taken to the classic epidote site by an indigenous tracker who ran on foot
whilst we followed in a Landrover! Where we went there was no sign of giant
garnets - just some nicely formed epidote of no great size.
So it looks,as if the giant australian garnets can be finally dismissed as sheer legend. We will however keep the page about the "giant australian garnets" up, as there are some publications out, which refer to this occurence.
Rumours still to be solved :
Africa :
- The "Mauretanian Meteorite" : The largest authenticated meteorititic (nickeliferous iron) mass to date, which survived hitting our earth, is the well - known Hoba Meteorite in the Otavi Mountain Land in Northern Namibia, which have an approximate size of 4 x 4 x 1 m. However, from time to time there is a rumour of a much larger 'legendary' meteoritic iron mass somewhere in the desert of Mauretania, which is said to be well over 100 m long and form a whole ridge on its own. Any comments on that ?
America :
- Niagara Falls, USA / Canada : A very large cavity of huge dolomite crystals that were opened up and exposed in
the making of the water tunnels for the Hydro Power Plants at Niagara Falls NY and Niagara Falls Canada.
- Kern Co. , California, USA : Large Kernite crystals up to 2,5 m are known to occur in the borate deposits of Kern County and will be featured on this site as soon as we have some good images. According to some sources these crystals may even reach dimensions of 8.75 m = 28.66 ft !
- Greenland : According to Mr. Frisch / Germany giant arfvedsonite crystals over 1 m size are reported from the Isua Bay near Narsarsuk. Anybody ever heard of these ?
- Canada : In the Bancroft area, in Ontario. there was an open quarry where they
mined huge sheaves of Actinolite crystals and when it was closed, they were left strewn all
around the quarry floor. Information kindly provided by Ray Hill
Remarks : The giant crystals of the Bancroft area are well known, especially the phlogopite and apatite crystals,
but more information and some images are needed to establish a Bancroft - page on its own.
- Brazil : I cant believe that information in the moment, but just for the records : A 1 km (!!!) quartz monocrystal is forming a quartz ridge somewhere in Minas Gerais, Brazil. Excellent stuff for a future science fiction story, isnt it...?
Asia :
- Kazakhstan : Giant pollucite grains with sizes to several metres are said to occur in some pegmatites in west Kazakhstan.
Australia :
The "giant garnets" of the Harts Range are obviously a mere legend - see above
Europe :
- Allertal, Northern Germany : Large halite cubes (rocksalt) similiar to those find at the Merkers mine are rumoured to have occured in one of the now defunct potash mine in the Allertal region, Lower Saxony, Germany. Source : RÖSLER (1981) : Lehrbuch der Mineralogie .
- Tarn, France : Giant fluorie cubes up to 1 m size have been found in an undisclosed fluorite deposit in Tarn Department, France, according to the recently published book "Minerals and their Localities" by Jan H. Bernhard and Jaroslaw Hyrsil.
- Trepca, Serbia : Large galena cubes up to 1 m size have been found at the Trepca polymetallic deposit according to a visiting geologist.
- Lavrion, Greece : Several meter long calcite scalenohedrons are rumoured to occur in the famous Lavrion mining region, Attika, Greece.
- Mt. Kaibyn, Altai, GUS : A 60 cm wide vein of native copper, which can be traced over several km length, is reported from this area
- Mt. Ploskaya, Kola Peninsula, GUS : Microlite - a mineral named for its small crystals, is said to occur as crystal fragments weighing up to 250 kg on the slopes of this mountain.
- Moss, Southern Norway : According to classic mineralogist BRÖGER (1890) : Allgemeine Betrachtungen über die Bildung pegmatitischer Gänge, in : Zeitschrift für Krystallographie und Mineralogie, Vol. 16, p. 231 he observed giant feldspar crystals up to 10 m size in pegmatitic veins cutting granites at Kure near Moss, southern Norway.
- Southern Norway ? : A single giant garnet crystal with a diameter of 1 m is said to have been found on the shoreline of a fjord somewhere in southern Norway.
- Crystal Cave, Romania : The following mail reached us the other day :
Hi, As far as I know the largest calcite monocrystal known ( as opposed
to "normal" speleothems is in Crystal Cave, Iad Valley, Carpathian
Mountains, Romania. Not easy to access as you get to the cave by travelling along a hydro
tunnel, the cave entrance is in the roof. Totally inaccessable if the
tunnel is working.
