Enhydro / Hopper Quartz

I get alot of questions concerning enhydro crystals so I am going to tell you good folks everything you need to know about them : )

Enhydros and Hoppers form much the same way but there is one key difference that you will learn here

These types of quartz grew too fast for the faces to completely fill in

Hopper

In the case of a Hopper rapid growth gives the appearance that the crystal grew wildly in all directions. The Hoppers continued to grow at a accelerated speed which in turn made many stepped and over grown faces

A good piece of hopper quartz will have fully terminated faces

These are scientifically known as Negative Skeletal Quartz

Enhydro

These formed identical to hopper quartz but they went through periods of rapid then slow growth. The variations in growth resulted in the hopper faces being sheeted over with a thin layer of quartz. What ever was around the hopper faces gets trapped in when the new quartz sheets over the faces.

Most often Water gets trapped in these internal voids. As the water cools down it shrinks which produces a vacume gas bubble

Sometimes the gas bubbles are stuck in place in the water chamber. But sometimes they are highly mobile, compare it to a bubble inside of a carpenters level.

Several notes of caution with enhydro crystals. They have trapped water inside which means that when exposed to temperature extremes they may crack or even explode! No kidding they can explode just like a can of soda in the freezer.

to avoid this never let the crystal be exposed to temperatures below freezing. Also make sure that they are not left in the sun for too long.....this also can make the water expand if it gets heated enough.

Most enhydros also have a smokey color butr not all of them. Any type of mineral that is present during formation may also be enclosed in with the water.

A two stage enhydro has water and a gas bubble

Three stage enhydros have water, gas, and a mineral present like pyrite for example!! 

I anyone has a question please send it to me so I can add it to this page : )