::QUARTZ::

QUARTZ

HEALING PROPERTIES:

Clearly, the best all purpose stone! The symbol of elemental wholeness, containing the four elements of creation. Assists us to amplify, focus, direct, transmit and store energy. Its greatest attribute is known to be its use as an aid to opening the psychic centers, enabling the ability to meditate at a deeper level and to free one's mind from the mundane and the trivia. It releases the higher consciousness and develops mystical and spiritual gifts. It is also particularly useful for meditation and when working to contact or align with one's higher self! The Quartz Crystal attracts the powers of light and energy and is said to be an excellent powerful general healer and dynamic working tool which works on all levels - strengthening, cleansing and protecting. Purifies air. Protects against harmful electrical vibrations. Assists the wearer to think intuitively.

PHYSICAL CHEMICAL PROPERTIES:

Quartz, second most common of all minerals, composed of silicon dioxide, or silica, SiO2. It is distributed all over the world as a constituent of rocks and in the form of pure deposits. It is an essential constituent of igneous rocks such as granite, rhyolite, and pegmatite, which contain an excess of silica. Quartz crystallizes in the rhombohedral system. The size of the crystals varies from specimens weighing a metric ton to minute particles that sparkle in rock surfaces. Quartz is also common in massive forms, which contain particles ranging in size from coarse-grained to cryptocrystalline (grains invisible to the naked eye but observable under a microscope). The luster in some specimens is vitreous; in others it is greasy or splendent (shining glossily). Some specimens are transparent; others are translucent. In the pure form, the mineral is colorless, but it is commonly colored by impurities.
Quartz crystal has applications in the electronics industry for controlling the frequency of radio waves.

Quartz crystals exhibit a property called the piezoelectric effect, that is, they produce an electric voltage when subjected to pressure along certain directions of the crystal. Because of this property, quartz crystal has important applications in the electronics industry for controlling the frequency of radio waves. It also has the optical property of rotating the plane of polarized light and is used in polarizing microscopes. Quartz crystals undergo structural transformations when heated. Ordinary, or low, quartz, when heated to 573° C (1063.4° F), is converted into high quartz, which has a different crystal structure and different physical properties. When cooled, however, high quartz reverts to low quartz. Between 870° and 1470° C (1598° and 2678° F), quartz exists in the form called tridymite, and above 1470° C (2678° F), the stable form is known as cristobalite. At about 1710° C (3078° F), the mineral melts.

Rose quartz is coarsely crystalline but without distinct crystal form and is colored rose red or pink, the color often fading on exposure to light.

Smokey quartz, or cairngorm stone, occurs in crystals ranging from smoky yellow to dark brown.

Quartz

Chemical Formula

SiO₂

Hardness

7.00

Specific Gravity

2.65

Refractive Index

1.54 - 1.55

ORIGIN HISTORY:
Quartz appears to be from the German 'Quarz' but that word's origin is not known. The name quartz possibly comes from a Saxon word meaning cross vein ore, while some it is instead derived from the Slavic word kwardy (hard). The Greeks had originally named Quartz, Krystallos, the word for ice, but this soon came to mean any crystal The gem varieties of quartz have been used as gemstones and other ornamental objects for thousands of years. Polished rock crystal spheres or crystal balls were used as a means of divination or scrying in medieval times. In China's Ming Dynasty, Quartz often showed up as stone in jewelry work. In Pre-Columbian America, explorations of Mixtec graves have uncovered Quartz use for ear jewelry For thousands of years before this, quartz crystals and objects made from them were used for divination, disease diagnosis and for awareness of current events in distant places in many ancient cultures.

GEOGRAPHICAL DEPOSITS:
Quartz is one of the most abundant compounds found in the Earth's surface and in most sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, and therefore, it and its many varieties come from thousands of locations around the globe. Quartz was even found on Moon during lunar explorations! Large deposits of good quality clear quartz have been found in Brazil, France (Dauphine), USA (Arkansas). Primary deposits in US are at Hot Springs of Garland County, Mount Ida in Montgomery County & California-Calaveras County's Mokelumne Hill. Sutters Mill, site of the California Gold Rush of 1848 has large deposits of quartz that had gold veins running through them and San Diego County is famous for very unique samples. New York, Herkimer County has deposits of doubly terminated quartz called Herkimer Diamonds. Elsewhere, quartz also occurs at Australia, British Columbia, Germany, India, Japan, Madagascar, Malagasy Republic, Man, Mexico, Namibia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and St. Gotthard, Switzerland.