Quartz is also used as an abrasive for sandblasting, grinding glass, and cutting soft stones. Transparent Rock Crystal has many electronic uses it is used as oscillators in radios, watches, and pressure gauges, and in the study of optics. Sand, which is composed of tiny Quartz pebbles, is the primary ingredient for the manufacture of glass. Quartz is an important mineral with numerous uses. Quartz occurs in almost every single mineral environment. Hardness, crystal forms, striations on crystal faces, and frequent appearance of conchoidal fractures on crystal faces. Transparent, colorless Quartz crystals from a few distinct localities may be adamantine.ġ) Some specimens fluoresce, especially white and green.
Hexagonal prisms with modified crystal faces.Ĭlick here for a detailed explanation on the crystal structure of Quartz. As a result of a changeover from alpha to beta Quartz, crystals form as The crystal structure of Quartz is a very complicated. Over another, leaving a ghosted form inside. Growth, where the top of a crystal bulges out from the rest of theĬrystal, and may also form as phantom growth, where one crystal forms Globular, stalactitic, crusty, in nodules, and in amygdules.Ĭrystals frequently twin a famous twinning habit is the Japanese twin, where two crystals contact at a 90º angle. On a matrix, as dense agglomerations of small crystals, massive, Quartz crystal habits include drusy, grainy, bladed, as linings of geodes, as rounded waterworn pebbles, radiating, as pointy pyramids Crystals are usually striated horizontally, and are sometimes doubly terminated. Crystals can be in enormous prismatic and stubby crystals, or in pointed aggregates of such crystals. Quartz crystals are unique and very identifiable with their pointed and often uneven terminations. Sometimes multicolored or banded.Ĭrystals, which are hexagonal in shape, vary in shape and size. Also gray, green, orange, yellow, blue, and red. Most geodes have an inner layer of larger crystalline Quartz, and an outer layer of Chalcedony or banded Agate.įor additional information, see the gemstone section on Quartz.Ĭolorless, white, purple, pink, brown, and black. Quartz frequently forms the inner lining of geodes. In some localities, Hematite forms a thin red or brown layer internally in the Quartz crystal, giving it a natural bright red to brown coloring, and sometimes even a mild natural iridescence. There is also a transparent sky blue form of Quartz crystals, as well as a wildly iridescent type that are synthetically colored by irradiation of gold. Much Amethyst is also heat treated to intensify color, and a green transparent form known as "Green Amethyst" or "Prasiolite" is formed by heat treating certain types of Amethyst. Almost all forms of the yellow-brown variety Citrine are in fact heat treated. Some forms of Quartz, especially the gemstone forms, have their color enhanced. Other important varieties of Quartz, such as Amethyst, Citrine, and Agate, also have dedicated pages due to their popularity and individual varieties. Chalcedony is listed on its own dedicated page in this guide.
This page deals only with the crystalline forms of Quartz.
It is the microcrystalline form of Quartz, forming only occurs in microscopic, compacted crystals. Most mineral reference guides list Chalcedony as an individual mineral, but in reality it is a variety of Quartz. Although the Feldspars as a group are more prevalent than Quartz, as an individual mineral Quartz is the most common mineral. Quartz is also the most varied of all minerals, occurring in allĭifferent forms, habits, and colors. It occurs in basically all mineralĮnvironments, and is the important constituent of many rocks. Quartz is one of the most well-known minerals on earth.
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