Fluorite, Austria

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Fluorite
Austria
CaF₂

Fluorite octahedron from the Schrammacher north-west face, found by Vinzenz Eller

Fluorite 16cm on edge	© Robert Brandstetter

There are about 250 different Fluorite localities known in Austria but only few of them have produced crystals bigger than half a centimeter. The most thrilling specimens have been found in the Pennin section of the Eastern Alps called "Tauernfenster" (Tauern - window). This geological formation is the deepest stratum of the Alps and part of the "West Alpine". In Austria the "West Alpine" is overlain by "Austroalpine" stratums but between the Brenner area in the west and the line - Gmünd - St. Michaael - Radstatt in the east the Pennin stratum comes to the surface. The Zillertaler Alps and the Hohe Tauern Mts. with Großvenediger, Großglockner, Sonnblick, Ankogel belong to this formation that lets you have a look into the deepest alpine stratum.
In these mountains Fluorite crystals can be either found in alpine clefts or in ore veins. The relatively high tempered solutions in alpine clefts let the Fluorites mostly crystallize in form of octahedrons. Being comparably rare these Fluorite octahedrons belong to the most expensive alpine minerals that local collectors called 'Stoansuacha' do not give away easily.

The Pennin Tauernfenster (Tauern - window) is surrounded by the "Lower Austroalpine" section whose limestones and dolomites have enormous fissure systems that can be faced by tons of Fluorite. These crystals always have cubic habit because of the deeper tempered solutions that circulated in the fissure systems. The important locations Obernberg am Brenner, Wald bei Krimml and Weisseck belong to this section.

(Ref. Niedermayr G. 1990. Fluorit in Österreich. Emser Hefte. Dürnberg: Doris Bode Verlag, p.12-33)

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Hohe Tauern, Goldberg group, Große Fleiß valley, Hocharn, Southwest face

Lower part of Hocharn southwest face with Fluorite clefts	© Kurt Sternig

Fluorite & Bavenite 7,5cm wide	© R. Brandstetter

Fluorite on Quartz 5cm	© H. Prasnik

Fluorite 18cm high, found by Kurt Sternig	© Robert Brandstetter

Probably the most spectacular Fluorite crystal of the Hocharn southwest face is the intensely green colored octahedron with 8cm on an edge which was found by the Austrian mountain guide Kurt Sternig in the late nineties. The cleft was located in an overhang about 120 metres above the ground. It needed a guy like Kurt to reach this extreme spot and to rescue the wonderful crystal which is now on display in the private museum Kirchler in Ahrntal, Southern Tyrol.

Fluorite and Calcite 6cm wide	© H. Fink

Fluorite FOV 5 x 4cm	© Rudo

'Reiter - cleft' in the Hocharn southwest face	© Kurt Sternig

Only shoes can be seen of the 'Stoansuacha' (Austrian word for alpine mineral collector) who is trying to get out some fine Fluorite specimens of the historical Fluorite cleft which was discovered by the legendary Carinthian 'Strahler' Sebastian Brandstätter vulgo Reiter in the late sixties. With very primitive equipment and sometimes even taking off his shoes to find a better grip Sebastian climbed to most extreme regions in the southwest face. When he came home with the attractive purple Fluorite octahedrons he had no idea what these minerals were actually worth. He gave them away for almost nothing although he needed money badly to feed his rapidly growing family.

Fluorite xls 2cm	© Chris Hager

Fluorite xls up to 2cm	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite & Bavenite 6cm high	© Rudo

In 1982 it was the student of mineralogy Georg Kandutsch to open a Fluorite cleft not far away of the "Reiter - cleft" in the southwest face of Hocharn mountain. It produced some very aesthetical specimens with pink Fluorite octahedrons together with colorless Apatite and Calcite.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Hohe Tauern, Malta valley

Fluorite 3cm wide	© H. Prasnik

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Hohe Tauern, Malta valley, Koschach, Modre quarry (Svata quarry; Koschach quarry)

Fluorite & Epidote 4cm wide	© H. Prasnik

A region of great interest for Fluorite collectors is the Malta valley in Carinthia with its granite quarries that produced wonderful sharp edged Fluorite octahedrons. But as not all collectors are honest people (some stole tools out of the quarries) it is now strictly forbidden to look for minerals there.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Hohe Tauern, Goldberg group, Zirknitz, Große Zirknitz valley, Alteck, Tömmernscharte

Fluorite 7,5cm high	© Robert Brandstetter

This photo shows the happiness of two 'Stoansuacha' after the discovery of some nice Fluorites and Smoky Quartzes in a big alpine cleft at Trömmernscharte, Alteck, Große Zirknitz valley, Carinthia, Austria. Fluorite octahedrons in alpine clefts belong to the highest rewards the mountains of the Alps can offer for the hard and dangerous work of the 'Stoansuacha'.
Werner Hoffmann (in front) is holding two specimens of pink Fluorites. One specimen is shown in the small picture at the left side. In the background Thomas Wabnig is posing with a great Smoky Quartz specimen.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Hohe Tauern, Ankogel group, Mallnitz, Tauern valley, Schwarze Wand (Weiße Wand)

Fluorite & Quartz 8cm wide	© Rudo

Fluorite 6,5cm wide	© Rudo

Fluorite & Quartz 4cm wide	© Rudo

Fluorite, Quartz, Adularia 14cm wide	© Rudo

Fluorite cleft in Tauern valley, Mallnitz	© Rudo

A cross-spider is guarding a Fluorite cleft in Tauern valley, Mallnitz, Carinthia, Austria.
The area Tauerntal - Weiße Wand - Romate mountain in Mallnitz was known as a locality for Fluorite although no big find had ever been reported due to the fact that clefts are rather small in the granosyenite gneiss there. Fortunately the author of these lines discovered several clefts with three of them being unusual big for this location.They produced some outstanding undamaged floaters.
The bright green Fluorite octahedrons displayed above including the big one with 6cm in diameter are all from the cleft with the cross-spider.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Carinthia, Gailtaler Alpen & Karnische Alpen, Hermagor, Weißensee, Laka

Fluorite on Dolomite 11cm wide	© H. Prasnik

Nice zone colored Fluorites on Dolomite and limestone matrix have been recovered by the very active Carinthian collector Helmut Prasnik in the Gailtaler Alpen south of Weißensee.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Tyrol, North Tyrol, Sill valley (Wipp valley), Obernberg valley, Obernberg am Brenner, Lead mines

Fluorite 12,5cm wide	© Markus Rosenkranz

Fluorite & Calcite 6cm wide	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite & Baryte 6,4cm wide	© Robert Brandstetter

The former lead - zinc mines of Obernberg am Brenner have produced Fluorite crystals that usually are a combination of cubes and dodecahedrons with a smooth cubic surface but a dull finish of the dodecahedrons. This makes them very distinctive.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Tyrol, North Tyrol, Vals valley, Innervals, Schrammacher north-west face

Vinzenz Eller searching for Fluorites	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite 2,5 x 2cm	© Chris Hager

Fluorite & Smoky Quartz 4,5cm wide	© Chris Hager

Fluorite 16cm on an edge	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite 13cm on an edge	© Robert Brandstetter

The very pink colored Fluorite has a remarkable 16 cm edge length and a weight of 3.4 kg. The crystal comes from the 600 meter high and nearly vertical Schrammacher northwest face in Vals Valley, Tyrol. My friend Vincenz Eller found this exceptional Fluorite in the summer of 1990. This photo was taken for the Extra-Lapis # 35 "Fluorit" because of an article about the finder. In the background, the picturesque valley of Vals and the dangerous Schrammacher wall, from which the crystal comes!
This treasure is family-owned since the discovery and there the piece will remain!
(Robert Brandstetter 2012)


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Tyrol, North Tyrol, Vals valley, Vals, Hohe Wand

Fluorite 3 x 1,5cm	© Chris Hager

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Tyrol, North Tyrol, Ziller valley, Zillergrund, Elfriede tunnel

Fluorite, Chlorite Group 7,5cm wide	© R. Brandstetter

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Krimmler Ache valley, Krimml, Vorderkrimml

Fluorite 13cm high	© R. Brandstetter

Such unbelievable pieces have been found only between 1950 and 1960. The school headmaster Hugo Ullhofen rescued the best specimens. This quality, color and crystal size has never been discovered again since then.
The Crystal Cave is located in a limestone quarry on the north side of the "Rehrlköpfel" at the foot of the "Nösslachwand".
(Robert Brandstetter 2012)


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Hollersbach valley, Scharnbachgraben, Achsel Alp

Fluorite xls up to 5,5cm	© H. Fink

One of the very best Fluorite finds in Austria was made at the end of the nineteenth century on the Achsel Alp. In a tunnel where lead and zinc was mined a mineralized cleft was opened which contained red Fluorite octahedrons of phantastic quality. The biggest one measured incredible 12cm on an edge. The fine specimens were sold to potential collectors all around the globe so that in the end there was none to be seen in Austria any more. Some years ago Hubert Fink was able to buy this one from an American collector to bring it back to Austria.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Rauris valley, Hüttwinkl valley, Alteck - Hoher Sonnblick area, Goldberg-Spitze

Fluorite, Smoky Quartz 15cm wide	© Fink, Rasser

Hubert Fink and Ludwig Rasser discovered on Goldberg-Spitze in 2008 a Smoky Quartz cleft that also contained one Fluorite crystal. But this crystal turned out to be a very special one measuring 10cm in diameter and having wonderful red color inside.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Böckstein

Fluorite, Adularia 1cm on an edge	© Rudo

Fluorite 11,5cm high	© martin gruell

Fluorite, Stilbite 9,4cm high	© martin gruell

Fluorite 17,5 x 14cm	© martin gruell

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Naßfeld valley, Theresien tunnel

4,5cm wide (left) 4,5cm high (right)	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Remsach, SAFE Power station, Anger valley duct

Fluorite, Calcite 10cm	© Gerd Stefanik

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Naßfeld valley, Schleier fall tunnel

Fluorite, Calcite, Hematite 9,5cm high	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Böckstein, Hirschau quarry

Fluorite, Scolecite 15cm high	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Hohe Tauern, Gastein valley, Remsach, SAFE Power station, Böckstein duct

Fluorite, Quartz 7cm	© R. Brandstetter

Fluorite, Quartz 2,8cm on an edge	© martin gruell

Fluorite, Quartz 14cm high	© Robert Brandstetter

Lots of excellent Fluorite finds have been made in the Gastein valley and its surrounding mountains. Two different types of genesis can be observed there:
a) Quartz veins that also contain Fluorite. These veins often reach enormous length.
b) Alpine tension joints (clefts).
Both types belong to the Pennin section of the Eastern Alps.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Lungau, Murwinkel, Weißeck area (incl. Rauchkopf; Riedingscharte)

Fluorite & Calcite 11cm wide	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite, Quartz 13cm high	© Martin Gruell

Fluorite 7,5cm wide	© martin gruell

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Lungau, Murwinkel, Weißeck area (incl. Rauchkopf; Riedingscharte), Rieding Lake

Fluorite 7,9cm high	©

Fluorite, Quartz 10cm wide	© R. Brandstetter

Fluorite 21cm wide	© Markus Rosenkranz

Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Salzburg, Lungau, Murwinkel, Weißeck area (incl. Rauchkopf; Riedingscharte), Summit Cleft

Fluorite 8,1cm high	© Markus Rosenkranz

Fluorite 11cm high	©

Fluorite on Calcite 10,5cm wide	© R. Brandstetter

Fluorite 8cm high	© RK

Fluorite 13cm wide	© Markus Rosenkranz (Stoafex78)

Because of its enormous cavities that are faced by tons of excellent Fluorite crystals the Weißeck area has been the most important locality in Austria for Fluorite collectors since the 18th century. The summit cleft which has been worked at in the late nineties produced crystals measuring over 5cm on edges that can be purple, lilac, golden-yellow, green, blue or colorless.


Fluorite
Austria
Austria, Styria, Liezen, Altenmarkt, Unterlaussa, Ungerhammerplatzl (Platzl)

Fluorite xls up to 0,7cm	© neschen

Fluorite xls up to 2,2cm	© Robert Brandstetter

Fluorite 6,7 x 5,5cm	© www.viamineralia.com

The limestones and dolomites of the 'Gutensteiner Schichten' (Gutensteiner layers) can have cubic Fluorite crystals up to 6,5cm on edges in far reaching fissure systems. Because of its wonderful deep violet colors the most famous location belonging to these layers is Ungerhammerplatzl near Unterlaussa in Styria.


Rudolf Hasler, Martin Gruell, Robert Brandstetter (01/08/2013)


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Edited 82 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2013 11:17AM by Rudolf Hasler.

Rock,
I have just written a few lines and put in a few pictures to see how it works. Before I go on again I 'd like you to have a quick look at it to help me avoid fundamental mistakes.

Rudolf

Rock,
I come back to my promise about working at a best minerals article. If you want I would have a try at best minerals "Fluorite - Austria".

Rudolf

Rudolph,
OK go ahead and start work. Just go to the bottom of the Fluorite Austria article and in the message box start to work. In the Subject field call it Fluorite, Austria. Follow the format of the other Best Minerals articles like the German fluorites or the USA fluorites. If you need any help as all, feel free to ask any questions you want. You can ask the questions here or you can send me a private message if you want. You can use of course any of the fluorites in the Mindat database, many of the good ones I have selected above. Or if you wish, and it might be a good learning experience, for you to just start from scratch and look at all the Austrian fluorites in the database and make your own selection from scratch.

Or even better yet, use the new gallery php format David developed for us and use
[www.mindat.org]

work your way down to the Austrian Fluorites and check the little boxes of the images you may want to include in the article and at the end of the fluorites click the button and it will generate at the top of the fluorite gallery a list that you only need to select, copy and paste into your article. It already has the locality strings reversed. But again, if you get into trouble, just rattle my cage.

From tome to time Ill look in on your progress and make comments or make little edits or suggestions about changes you may wish to make, especially if you ask me to take a look. When you finish, Ill remove all the stuff I have put in the thread and the article and thread will have your name on it. If you complete a second one, Ill make you a moderator on the best minerals forum and you can edit any of the existing articles or create new ones on your own.

You will find it a very educational experience and you will discover just how much you don't know. We all do.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/14/2012 12:25PM by Rock Currier.

Rudolph,
Its good to see you have started. I like the text you have written thus far. Perhaps I may make a few observations and suggestions.

You will see that I have added some of the standard format stuff at the top and bottom of the article. The pictures are a bit screwed up and it took me a while to figure out why. I think when you started the article you clicked a reply button in the Fluorite thread rather than just going to the bottom of the article and creating a new entry in the thread. Edit what you have done and copy the entire thing and paste it into the Message box at the bottom of the thread. This should make it possible to format the images like we do in the rest of the best minerals articles because it will give you a little wider more standard format to work with.

Notice that in addition to the size measurements in the image captions that I have added the species names. Putting fluorite in the caption of each image seems a bit redundant unless there is another major mineral on the specimen, then Fluorite and Calcite, for instance, etc makes the species names in the captions make sense. Your image 481802 from R. Brandstetter may have an incorrect size measurement. At least the caption on the full image says it is max 7.5cm and not 10.

When you put what you have done in the slightly larger format as suggested above, Ill do a little tweaking on the image sizes and talk to you a little more about ways to do that that you may find better to use.

Rock

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Thank you, Rock.
I think I will enjoy working on that article.

Remember I once mentioned the name Robert Brandstetter to you? I am happy that he joined mindat yesterday and told me he would upload pics of excellent specimens that will certainly be of interest for your articles. He only seemed to be irritated a little when he noticed that it took half a day for his pics to appear after uploading them. Maybe you should do some magic to set him free or however this procedure is called. It would mean a little disaster if that man got lost to mindat. He has written lots of articles for the German magazine 'Lapis'.

Rudolf

Rudolf,
I have published your email in the managers forum and asked for comments. I could make him a level two user and undoubtedly he is worth of that level. However as managers there is sort of a unspoken understanding that we will consult the other managers about such things. Usually we want to see the individual do some work on mindat before we give out a level two permission. This goes double with making level three permissions. Ill let you know what the reaction of the other manages are.

Rock Currier
Crystals not pistols.

Thank you, Rock!
I'll tell Robert about your efforts.

Rudolf

David,
I just noticed that you wanted to help me arranging the photos. For me it looks very nice the way you did it with the empty spaces in a straight line in the centre. The only problem then is the different height of the pictures. Which way is better? Straight line with empty spaces or same height of pics?
Thanks,
Rudolf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2012 08:39PM by Rudolf Hasler.

Hello Rudolf,

I just want to mention some special terms: What you call "East-Alpine" is correctly named as "Austroalpine" in geological nomenclature. Your "Under-East-Alpine" (Unterostalpin) should be correctly translated as "Lower Austroalpine".

Volkmar

Thank you Volkmar.
I will change that immediately.

Rudolf



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2012 08:06PM by Rudolf Hasler.