Feldspar and Quartz are the two most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Here, Tourmaline adds a touch of class. Coarse-grained grey quartz + white feldspar + black tourmaline pegmatite crosscutting what appears to be a fine-grained to porphyritic diorite, Canadian Museum of Nature, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Pegmatites have the ability to collect a bunch of elements, making them the "garbage cans" of the Earth. Complex, zoned pegmatites in Brazil, California, Maine and elsewhere are mined for mineral specimens and gemstones. However, quartz-feldspar-mica pegmatite is by far and away the most typical intrusion.