1.2 mm graphite crystal showing growth spirals. Etched from gray-white calcite. Note that the step edges are rotated 30 degrees from the prism/pinacoid face edges. Harrisville, Lewis County, New York.

Remarkable hexagonal crystal with well defined spiral showing a transition from rounded steps near the center to polygonalized nearer the crystal’s edges. John Rakovan collection and photo, Namib Grube, Wlotzkas Baken, Namibia.

Growth spiral on a 1 mm graphite crystal in calcite. Crestmore quarry, Riverside County, California.

Remarkable spirals on 2 mm crystal. Namib Grube, Wlotzkas Baken, Namibia.

1.7 mm graphite crystal with a {11-21} twin and surface steps, on blue calcite. Harrisville, Lewis County, New York.

1 mm tabular graphite crystal with modifying pyramid faces, twinned on {11-21}, in calcite. Crestmore quarry, Riverside County, California.

1.2 mm sample with a thick secondary overgrowth of graphite. The crystal is on partially etched calcite and is associated with orange phlogopite that is included with tiny graphite spheres, and an unidentified pale green mineral at the mid-lower right. Lime Crest quarry near Sparta, Sussex County, New Jersey.

SEM photo of graphite crystals (to approximately 0.2 mm) showing a secondary overgrowth of graphite crystals as minute plates. Associated are a spray of arsenopyrite crystals at the lower right and a plate of pyrrhotite at the lower left. Lime Crest quarry near Sparta, Sussex County, New Jersey.

Section of a 2 mm tabular graphite crystal with a second-generation graphite overgrowth, etched from calcite. Treadway quarry, Port Henry, New York.

Close-up of the secondary graphite overgrowth. Treadway quarry, Port Henry, New York.

1 mm sharp tabular graphite crystal with green diopside in calcite. Crestmore quarry, Riverside County, California.

Growth spirals on tabular graphite crystals in calcite. Both crystals are 2 mm across and occurred within 5 mm of each other. Trotter Mine dump, Franklin, New Jersey.

Cluster of graphite spheres (up to 0.4 mm) on orange-brown phlogopite, partially etched from calcite. Lime Crest quarry near Sparta, Sussex County, New Jersey.

Spheroidal Graphite in Gabbro. Oshirabetsu mine, Hiroo, Hokkaido, Japan.

The snowflake graphites are a very rare surface morphology that appear to have arisen from a later generation of graphite grown in a dendrite pattern on an earlier grown hexagonal graphite crystal surface. The color images come from the interference of light in a optical microscopy technique called differential interference contrast, which is used to enhance surface topography. These unusual crystals occurred in a single sample of marble from a large quarry near Harrisville, New York.

More snowflake graphite. Harrisville, Lewis County, New York.

1 mm columnar graphite crystal with trigonal symmetry. Umzimkulu quarry, KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa.

Graphite crystal from Bauer residues donated to the Smithsonian (National Museum of Natural History). Sterling Hill, Sussex County, New Jersey.

SEM photo of a graphite pseudo-cube (nearly 0.1 mm) on phlogopite, partially etched from calcite. Individual graphite crystals in the aggregate seem to be partially aligned. Lime Crest quarry near Sparta, Sussex County, New Jersey.