Smoky Quartz Cluster with Clinochlore from Dodo Mine, Russia TF1314

Smoky Quartz Cluster with Clinochlore from Dodo Mine, Russia
Approx. Dimensions: 6.5x5x2.25 inches
Approx. Weight: 646.4 grams
Locality: Dodo Mine, Saranpaul Berezovo District, Tyumen Region, Russia

This specimen is a rather large cluster of very lustrous smoky quartz crystals from the Dodo Mine. It is in excellent condition, with almost no damage to the multiple terminations throughout the cluster. The reverse shows the light green clinochlore that the Dodo Mine is well known for.

The Dodo deposit (often referred to as Dodo Mine) is a well-known mineral locality in the Subpolar Ural Mountains of Russia near the village of Neroika and some 100 km west-northwest of Saranpaul. It is part of a quartz crystal-bearing vein system in the high-latitude Urals that has attracted attention from mineralogists and collectors because of its striking and often high-quality quartz crystal specimens and associated minerals. The deposit occurs in alpine-cleft veins—fracture zones within the host rocks—where numerous mineral species crystallize, including quartz varieties (rock crystal and quartz gwindels), albite, anatase, allanite, parisite, and a suite of other silicates and oxides typical of alpine cleft mineralization. These veins cut through metamorphic and igneous rocks of the Subpolar Urals, a region shaped by complex Paleozoic tectonics that uplifted and deformed a variety of rock types and created the structural settings for quartz-rich hydrothermal activity.

Mineralogically, the Dodo deposit is significant not for large economic ore production but for the diversity and aesthetic quality of its mineral specimens. Collectors prize the deposit’s well-formed alpine quartz crystals and accessory minerals which crystallized from hydrothermal fluids in the alpine clefts. The deposit sits within a broader mineral province that includes other famed localities like the Puiva deposit, also noted for its quartz and associated minerals. Dodo and similar localities contribute to the understanding of vein-forming processes in high-grade metamorphic terranes of the Subpolar Urals and are documented in mineralogical literature as classic examples of alpine cleft mineralization in Russia.