15 December 2014

Amethyst geode brings purple hue to geology gallery

A 660 kg, one-metre high geode containing amethyst crystals and sourced from solidified volcanic ash in Minas Gerais state of Brazil, was today officially welcomed to Canterbury Museum.

The geode has been donated to the Museum by Christopher Coker who imported it in February 1993 and displayed it at his Cuba Street Mall crystal shop in Wellington until recently.

Canterbury Museum Director, Anthony Wright says that this is a very generous gift and the Museum is thrilled to have the geode on display in the Geology gallery where visitors can get up close and inspect it. “It really is incredibly beautiful and is certainly one of the largest specimens of its kind in Australasia.”

Mr Coker was inspired to make the donation as a replacement for the Museum’s smaller amethyst geode which was destroyed in the Canterbury earthquakes.

Geodes are hollow masses of mineral formed from the filling of vesicles (gas bubbles) in volcanic rocks by minerals deposited from hydrothermal fluids. Amethyst is a purple variety of quartz and owes its violet colour to three processes: irradiation, the addition of iron impurities and the presence of trace elements.

ENDS

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