The “Seed Crystal Event” in the  Mines and Deposits within the Herkimer Mining District

The “seed crystal event” in the Herkimer Mining District is an important step in the process of making Herkimer diamonds. The “Oil and Seed Crystal Theory” combines two elements suggesting that both oil bearing fluids and quartz bearing fluids interacted within the Herkimer Mining District to help create Herkimer diamonds.

Click on the button next - to see Herkimer diamonds

See more evidence of the intereaction between quartz and hydrocarbon:

The “Seed Crystal Event” Why is it important?

In order to grow Herkimer diamonds the solutions carrying the dissolved materials, that would eventually become Herkimer diamonds, needed some place where the growing could start.  It is quite hard to grow quartz in a rock that is mostly oil covered dolomite.  There is no place to start (nucleation site) the actual growing of Herkimer diamonds . But… if there are very tiny little Herkimer diamond like quartz crystals being carried in solution, before the large episode of Herkimer diamond growth, then these very tiny Herkimer diamonds can act as sites for growing the larger Herkimer diamonds. Small Herkimer diamonds are common, by the thousands, across the district. Tiny ones might be in the millions!

Seed Crystal Evidence: In the slide show above there will be more evidence showing the very consistent presence of seed crystals. This evidence will include the large presence of the little 5 to 10 mm little Herkimer diamonds that can fill up your palm (like the photo on the right), something so common across the district that it must have a connection to the History of Herkimer Diamonds.  But the evidence will go beyond this - to show that the seed crystal event was a unique event that occurred prior to making Herkimer diamonds and that it has many different variations. The evidence shown in the July talk in Herkimer, NY 2016, presented the discovery of crystal frost which for some Herkimer diamonds acted as “seed crystals”.  There is also evidence of very tiny crystal (less than 1/10th mm) that may have accompanied the crystal frost event.

Slide show contributors: Example Name……

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