DESCRIPTION:
Quartz comes in many colors, and is called different things depending on the color. Transparent and colorless quartz is called rock crystal, purple is called amethyst, if pink to red it's rose quartz, citrine is pale yellow, pale brown to black is called smokey quartz, milky quartz is a milky-white, if it has enclosed scales of mica or hematite it is called adventurine, and tigereye has lustrous yellow or brown parallel fibers. Quartz has a white streak, and it's crystal are hexagonal; usually prismatic. It is also a important rock-forming mineral, found in granite, rhyolite and many other volcanic rocks, and is also common in sandstone. Used as a gemstone, quartz is also used as oscillators and filters in radio and phone services, as well in the manufacture of glass.
COMMONLY FOUND:Quartz is found in many places around the world including many places in the U.S., here is a list of the more common localites.
Brazil is a great place for mining large samples of quartz. The largest crystal ever found their weighs almost 90,000 lbs! Dauphine, France is very well known for their quartz crystals.In the U.S. Arkansas is famous for its quartz deposits found near the Hot Springs of Garland County, and for those from Mount Ida in Montgomery County. California's Calaveras County’s Mokelumne Hill produces very large samples, and the site of the California Gold Rush of 1848, Sutters Mill, has large deposits of quartz that had gold veins running through them. While in Herkimer County, New York, they have deposits of doubly terminated quartz called Herkimer Diamonds.
INTERESTING FACTS:
The name quartz comes from the German word quarz, of uncertain origin. Quartz will also produce an electric charge if pressure is applied. This is an important propertiy called piezoelectricity, and gives quartz many uses. Also quartz is the most common mineral on the face of the Earth. It's found in pretty much every geological environment and is at least a component in most types of rock.
