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Quartz |
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Quartz |
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Quartz is silicon dioxide. It is one of the most widely distributed minerals on the Earth. There are many colour varieties of crystalline quartz that have been used to make jewelry. |
| Colourless, transparent rock crystal is the purest form but white milky quartz is more common. |
Photographed at the Geological Museum |
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The colours are purple amethyst, citrine (yellow
quartz), rose quartz (pink) and morion or cairngorm (smokey
quartz) are caused by iron or titanium impurities. Aventurine quartz owes
its sparkle due to other minerals such as mica and haematite. Tiger's
eye is quartz that has replaced riebeckite (blue asbestos).
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Rose quartz on the right. Go to our Amethyst
page to see another gem from quartz. |
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Text; "Fashioning of the Stone" by Alex Bevan. |
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Assignment: If you live in Western Australia, you should be able to find some quartz. On your next walk collect some quartz, bring it home and wash it in soapy water, then take it out into the sun and see if you can identify the quartz you have found. Does the quartz you have, have any crystals in it? (Make sure you get permission to collect any rocks from the land owners including National Parks and Reserves). If you don't have permission to collect any rock samples, take a bottle of water with you and wash the rocks as you find them, if you really like them take a photograph and start a photo album of different rocks. You may want to check out this
site as well for more information http://www.theimage.com/gemstone/quartz/quartz.html
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and graphical Copyright © Wildlife Education Services 2003. |
