View allAll Photos Tagged Quartz
Locality: Macaco Mine, Sao Geraldo do Baixio, Minas Gerail Brazil
Size: Specimen is 2.68 inches wide.
SC2-0017
28g
A hiker on the summit of Quartz Hill with Howard Douglas Lake below, Fatigue Mountain, Cidatel Pass and Citadel Peak in the distance
I should really give it up sometime
Should've known, couldn't last forever
That I should really give it up sometime
And I should really give it up sometime
All I wanted was to love you better
But I should really give it up sometime
-lyrics by TV on the Radio
Fluorite with Quartz. Fluorite is calcium fluoride. Blanchard Mine. Hansonburg District. Socorro Co., New Mexico.
Quartz pseudomorph after Ilvaite. 2nd Sovietskiy Mine. Dalnegorsk Urban District. Primorsky Kray, Russia.
Bornite with Quartz and Chalcocite coated Pyrite. Bornite is copper iron sulfide. Steward Mine. Butte District. Butte, Silver Bow Co., Montana.
☞ See the original photo in 1st comment below. • Created with the Amazing Circles tool of dumpr.net.
Locality: Due West, Abbeville Co., SC
From the collection of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles NHMLA - 23151
These lamps are made from giant quartz crystals, carved out at the base to have a space for a small light. They are about 12" to 20" tall and perhaps 6" or more wide. I felt pretty mixed about seeing them: as a grouping, it was attractive. But it does seem somehow soooo "commercial" to have descrated the crystals this way. Hmmmm.
Geodes are small to large, subspherical to irregularly-shaped, crystal-lined cavities in rocks. They form when water enters a void in a host rock and precipitates crystals. The most common geode-lining mineral is quartz.
Tourmalinated quartz is a type of quartz crystal that contains inclusions of tourmaline, a mineral often found alongside quartz. It forms during hydrothermal events, where hot fluids interact with rocks and minerals, creating the conditions for tourmaline to become trapped within growing quartz crystals.
This particular mineral specimen was found in the Falls Lake Terrane in Wake County, NC. The specific geological history and processes that led to its formation are unknown to me. Hopefully, this post might reach someone familiar with the region's geological and mineralogical history to provide more insight. Nonetheless, I believe this specimen does a remarkable job of showcasing the fascinating geological history of the NC Piedmont.
Locality: Ace of Diamonds Mine, Herkimer County, New York
Size: Crystal is 0.79 inches long.
SC2-0083
568g
This portion of the Highway 1 Kamloops to Alberta program involves replacing the two-lane bridge crossing at Quartz Creek, 40 km west of Golden, with a new four-lane bridge, access improvements to forest service roads and widening 4.4 km of two-lane highway to four lanes.
This portion of the Highway 1 Kamloops to Alberta program involves replacing the two-lane bridge crossing at Quartz Creek, 40 km west of Golden, with a new four-lane bridge, access improvements to forest service roads and widening 4.4 km of two-lane highway to four lanes.
Chrysoprase is a green member of the quartz group of minerals. This one has the nice bright apple green one expects from this material.
Locality: Mamuju area, Sulawesi Barat Province, Sulawesi, Indonesia
Size: Specimen is 5.5" wide.
SC2-2694
Himachal Pradesh, India. At ~ 15k feet. The clarity is amazing! This one is so clear that it has nearly mastered the art of invisibility! Thanks Andy, you picked one I really enjoy!.
Rutilated quartz (~4.9 centimeters across at its widest)
A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5600 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.
The oxide minerals all contain one or more oxide anions (O-2). The oxide minerals include species that are hydroxy-oxides. The hydroxide minerals (those with one or more OH-) are usually considered together with the oxides. Many sulfide minerals are not stable in Earth-surface conditions. In the presence of oxygen and moisture, sulfide minerals tend to tarnish or alter to oxides and hydroxy-oxides. All except the most inert elements (such as the platinum-group elements and gold and noble gases) readily form oxides. Gold oxide forms only under special conditions.
Rutile is a titanium oxide mineral (TiO2). It is an important titanium ore mineral. Rutile's most common crystal form consists of long, striated needles (acicular crystals). Rutile has an intense submetallic luster, a pale yellow to golden-brown to yellowish-brown to red to almost black color, and is fairly hard (H=6.5). Many twinned crystals have a bent or kinked appearance ("elbow twins").
Rutile occurs in igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. It usually occurs as long, slender needles within quartz crystals (= rutilated quartz) and in placer beach sands.
Locality: unknown
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Photo gallery of rutile & rutilated quartz:
www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=3486
and
Locality: Piedra Parada (Las VIgas), Municipio de Tatatila, Vera Cruz, Mexico.
Size: Larger crystal is 2.1 inches tall.
C# - SC2-0069
38g
Quartz, Ural, Russia.
Seen in Terra Mineralia, the largest collection of minerals in the world, Freiberg, Germany.
(crack surface)
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A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5600 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.
The silicates are the most abundant and chemically complex group of minerals. All silicates have silica as the basis for their chemistry. "Silica" refers to SiO2 chemistry. The fundamental molecular unit of silica is one small silicon atom surrounded by four large oxygen atoms in the shape of a triangular pyramid - this is the silica tetrahedron - SiO4. Each oxygen atom is shared by two silicon atoms, so only half of the four oxygens "belong" to each silicon. The resulting formula for silica is thus SiO2, not SiO4.
The simplest & most abundant silicate mineral in the Earth's crust is quartz (SiO2). All other silicates have silica + impurities. Many silicates have a significant percentage of aluminum (the aluminosilicates).
Quartz (silicon dioxide/silica - SiO2) is the most common mineral in the Earth's crust. It is composed of the two most abundant elements in the crust - oxygen and silicon. It has a glassy, nonmetallic luster, is commonly clearish to whitish to grayish in color, has a white streak, is quite hard (H≡7), forms hexagonal crystals, has no cleavage, and has conchoidal fracture. Quartz can be any color: clear, white, gray, black, brown, pink, red, purple, blue, green, orange, etc.
Seen here is the interior of a geode. Geodes are small to large, subspherical to irregularly-shaped, crystal-lined cavities in rocks. They form when water enters a void in a host rock and precipitates crystals. The most common geode-lining mineral is quartz. The glassy light-gray material in this sample is macrocrystalline quartz. The milky white material is apparently kaolinite, a clay mineral.
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Geode info. from the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, Illinois, USA):
"Geodes are hollow, subspherical bodies, ranging from an inch or two to a foot or more in diameter. Most geodes occur in limestones, rarely in shales. They have an outer chalcedonic silica layer which is separated from the enclosing limestone matrix by a thin clay film. The inner surface of the chalcedonic layer is usually lined with inward projecting quartz crystals, though in many geodes drusy coatings of calcite and dolomite occur commonly. Of less common occurrence, are crystals of magnetite, pyrite, sphalerite, and a few other such minor and rarer constituents.
The mode of origin of geodes in sedimentary rocks is but imperfectly understood. That geodes originate in an initial cavity, such as the unfilled space within a fossil, is well recognized, but whether such a cavity is a necessary prerequisite is open to question; geodes may originate in cavities formed by solution.
Many geodes show evidence of expansion, apparently resulting from pressure. A notable example of this singular phenomenon of expansion of the growing geodes is the "exploding bomb" structure.
"
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Photo gallery of quartz: