• Quartz is a very common mineral.
• Quartz is the most common mineral found in rocks.
• vitreous glassy luster
• Quartz is very important in industry for making gauges, oscillators, resonators and watches.

• Quartz goes by many common names such as: 
  • amethyst
  • citrine
  • drusy quartz
  • Herkimer diamonds
  • massive quartz
  • milky quartz
  • puddingstone
  • smoky quartz
  • rock crystal
  • rose quartz
  • rutilated quartz
     
• Chalcedony is a form of cryptocrystalline quartz. Common semi-precious gemstones that are cryptocrystalline quartz are:
  • Agate
  • Aventurine
  • Bloodstone
  • Carnelian (cornelian)
  • Chalcedony
  • Chert
  • Chrysoprase
  • Flint
  • Jasper
  • Onyx
  • Opals
  • Petrified Wood
  • Thunder Eggs
     
• Some well known quartz rocks have jasper in them and have special optical properties that make them look like they glow. They are:
  •  ronstone
  • tiger's eye
  • tiger iron,
     

• Most quartz found on the earth's crust is massive - namely it is not in crystal form.
• Quartz is one of the most common rock-building minerals.
• It is most often found in large massive chunks. When quartz is massive, it is a white, milky color. It is also sometimes called milky quartz.
• white colour is caused by gas bubbles and liquid being in the quartz as it is formed
• This quartz sample is milky white with some glassy portions.
• Quartz is very hard and very common.
• Because it is hard, it will scratch many rocks.
• Many rocks have quartz in them and that is why they are hard.
• Quartz breaks with very sharp edges that easily scratch people and things.

• Clear quartz crystals are what most people think of when they think of a crystal.
• When quartz is clear, it has also been called rock crystal.
• The word crystal is derived from a Greek word meaning clear ice.
• Quartz crystals are strongly piezoelectric, becoming polarized with a negative charge on one end and a positive charge on the other when subjected to pressure. They will vibrate if an alternating electric current is applied to them.
• Quartz crystals are often artificially made. They are grown in labs.

Quartz    Arkansas  USA

• often quartz crystals grow in clusters and are coated by another mineral

• The quartz family is very large with a large variety of gemstone material.
• These quartzes are crystalline.
• They include amethyst, rose quartz

• Amethyst is Ontario’s official gemstone.
• Amethyst is a form of quartz.
• Quartz that is purple or pink is called amethyst.
• Click here for more information & pictures of Amethyst

• When clear quartz has the fine needle-shaped crystals of rutile in it, it is called rutilated quartz.

• druzy quartz is a thin layer of small quartz crystals that coat a host rock, like a skin

• geodes are often lined with chalcesony, druzy quartz and quartz crystals
• when the inside of a geode is filled with quartz that is not spiky crystals,
  and is rounded like mounds of grapes, then it is called botryoidal
• Click here to find out more about geodes

• Rose Quartz is pink in color, probably caused by trace amounts of manganese or titanium.
• The Ancients believed that Rose Quartz helped women have beautiful complexions and prevented wrinkles.
• It was also believed to open a person's heart, so that person might receive love and give love more easily.

• smoky quartz is given it's name because of its brown colour
• Polished smoky quartz carving - a hand holding a "crystal ball

• Herkimer diamonds are not really diamonds.
• They are actually doubly terminated quartz crystals.
• They are called diamonds because they come out of the host rock completely formed & look like they have been cut & polished like a diamond.
• Perfectly formed, very hard, clear, gem-like quartz crystal in vug in gray rock matrix.
•  “Herkimer diamonds” look like they have been cut & polished but they form naturally in holes inside rocks in the area near the town of Herkimer, New York.

Quartz crystals on matrix Magic Mountain, Herkimer, New York  USA

• Chalcedony can be opaque, translucent or transparent. It comes in many colors and forms.
• Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline quartz. It has crystals so small that a microscope is needed to see the crystal structure.
• Chalcedony is often found in geodes. Its crystal habit, or growth pattern is often botryoidal.

  
Chalcedony that is whitish / pink is found in the desert of California.

• puddingstone is a conglomerate with bright red and brown jasper embedded in a field of white
• it was called puddingstone by the Pioneers who thought it looked like pudding, the jasper being like the raisins

• Bloodstone got its name because the red spots caused by iron oxides look like drops of blood as they appear on a dark green background.
  
  SPECIMEN ORIGIN: BRAZIL

Banded Chert  from Lafarge Quarry, Dundas, Ontario  CANADA

• This very hard striped rock is found in nodules or lenses in limestone. It takes a very high polish and was used by First Nation people in southern Ontario to make pipes with.

• Onyx is a cryptocrystalline form of quartz
• many decorations and sculptures are made of onyx

• TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF AGATE, CLICK HERE

Thunder Egg Geode  from Richardson's Ranch, Madras, Oregon  USA