This was taken by Richard Weston
Discovered in Siberia in the 1970s and named from the Russian ’chary’ which means charms’ or ’magic’ (some claim the name comes from the River Chara), charoite is purple in colour and often has a distinctive swirling appearance interrupted by yellow-brown inclusions of tinaksite crystals. The black ’rocks’ in this specimen are due to of aegirine. This image is taken from a long, narrow specimen that evokes an aerial view of a purple stream.
