Rutile with Chlorite

Description

The Untersulzbachtal — a high Alpine valley in the Hohe Tauern range of Salzburg, Austria — is one of Europe’s most celebrated Alpine cleft localities. Here, in cavities within chlorite schists formed during Alpine metamorphism, red-brown to black rutile crystals of exceptional size and quality grew on lustrous bright-green chlorite (clinochlore) matrix.

The visual drama of metallic adamantine rutile against vivid green chlorite is unmatched in Alpine mineralogy. Crystals are typically striated tetragonal prisms, sometimes with characteristic knee-shaped (geniculate) twins. Untersulzbachtal rutile has been collected by Alpine miners and naturalists since the 18th century and remains one of the benchmark European localities for the species.