Druse

druse

[drüz]

(geology)

A small cavity in a rock or vein encrusted with aggregates of crystals of the same minerals which commonly constitute the enclosing rock.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Druse

 

(1) A form of natural crystalline mineral aggregate. It is an accumulation of free crystals that have grown from one end (crystal face or edge) on the walls of cracks or closed cavities in rocks. The free part of the crystals is well defined, with the main direction of growth close to the perpendicular of the growth surface. Druses of quartz, amethyst, calcite, and stibnite often occur.

(2) In plants, an inclusion of calcium oxalate crystals that form in the cells of many plants during their life processes (for example, in the stems of the linden and in the stalks of begonia and dock leaves).

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.