Amethyst

Amethyst

Amethyst is a beautiful purple variety of quartz, recognised for its distinctive colours ranging from pale violet to deep purple. Its remarkable colouring develops through trace amounts of iron within the quartz crystal structure combined with natural irradiation over geological time. Amethyst commonly forms when silica-rich fluids enter cavities and fractures within volcanic and other rocks, allowing crystals to gradually grow inward from the surrounding walls. These processes can produce spectacular crystal-lined geodes. With a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale, amethyst has been valued for thousands of years as a gemstone, ornamental mineral and treasured collector's specimen.