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- 4 days ago
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Quartz Crystals and Gemstones

Updated: 2 days ago

varities of quartz crystals - limonite angel quartz, druzy coated spirit quartz, rose quartz, christmas quartz, pineapple quartz, tangerine hemotite quartz

Quartz is perhaps one of the most common but also the most diverse, in terms of colour crystal or rock form in the world. It has been known and appreciated since pre-historic times. The most ancient name known is recorded by Theophrastus in about 300-325 BCE is kristallos. The ancients believed that kristallos was a permanent form of solidified ice.

From ancient times to more recent times various other names for quartz were:

quarzum

crystallum

silicum

querkluftertz

Eventually, we got 'Quarz' in German, 'quarzum' in Latin and 'quartz' in English."

Science of Quartz

Quartz is found in the Earth's crust. If pure, quartz forms colourless, transparent and very hard crystals with a glass-like lustre. A significant component of many igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, this natural form of silicon dioxide is found in an astounding range of varieties and colours.

Colours of Quartz

from colourless, purple, rose, red, black, yellow, brown, green, blue, orange, etc. Clear quartz is also coloured by mineral inclusions such as dendrites, gold and brookite to name a few.

Properties of Quartz

Lustre: Vitreous

Transparency: Transparent, Translucent

Streak: White

Hardness: 7 on Mohs scale

Optical Phenomena

Certain quartz show of amazing optical illusions such as stars and eye better known as star quartz or tiger's eye.

Location

Quartz is found all over the world:

China, India, Turkey, Spain, Brazil, USA, Germany, Italy, Canada, Egypt, Norway, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Russia, Morocco, Namibia, South Africa, Madagascar

Jewellery

Some of the best and the most beautiful jewellery is made with quartz - feast your eyes on these.

Quartz is one of the most prolific and beautiful crystal forms found on this planet and it is one of the least expensive crystals. Quartz has metaphysial properties depending on its inclusions but its basic property is energy. Quartz is able to discharge positive energy and dispel negative energy. This energy is present in all modern technologies, mother boards of laptops and PCs, microchips of mobiles and medical instruments.

More importantly though, all life, but in particular the human, us, can benefit by surrounding ourselves with natural quartz crystals or wearing natural quartz crystal jewellery.

After writing this article, I came across this image which nudged me to the connection between sand and quartz and I had that d'oh! moment!

Sand is a sediment and quartz is a mjor component of sedimentary rock. Over a long time period and with weathering actions, the rock disintegrates and left behind is quartz crystals in the form of sand grains. So somewhere in the creation of this sculpture, quartz is there playing its part in showing off the beauty and the memories of those very particular days on Normandy Beach.