Tellurium

Field of view: 10 mm. Aggregate of tellurium. The fine dark silver-white grains are tellurium. The massive translucent white host is gangue quartz, aggregate of fine quartz crystals. Quartz contacting tellurium is yellow due to Te-ion contamination.

Recovered from a quartz vein in a moderate-temperature hydrothermal deposit associated with andesitic to basaltic pyroclastic rocks of an oceanic arc subjected to propylitization alteration. Formed in the early Pleistocene (1.5 Ma).

Tellurium from this location was described in 1933, and was designated the prefectural mineral of Shizuoka in 2016 by the Geological Society of Japan.