The Irish word for quartz is grianchloch, which means 'sunstone'. It is found regularly in passage tomb cemeteries in Europe in a burial context, such as Newgrange or Carrowmore in Ireland. Quartz is the most common material identified as the mystical substance maban in Australian Aboriginal mythology. Other sources attribute the word's origin to the Saxon word Querkluftertz, meaning cross-vein ore. The word 'quartz' comes from the German Quarz i, which is of Slavic origin (Czech miners called it křemen). Quartz is the mineral defining the value of 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness, a qualitative scratch method for determining the hardness of a material to abrasion.

Since antiquity, varieties of quartz have been the most commonly used minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings, especially in Eurasia. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are classified as gemstones. Since the transformation is accompanied by a significant change in volume, it can easily induce microfracturing of ceramics or rocks passing through this temperature threshold. The transformation from α-quartz to β-quartz takes place abruptly at 573 ☌ (846 K 1,063 ☏). Quartz exists in two forms, the normal α-quartz and the high-temperature β-quartz, both of which are chiral. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO 4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of SiO 2. Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). Lattice: hexagonal, Piezoelectric, may be triboluminescent, chiral (hence optically active if not racemic)

Insoluble at STP 1 ppm mass at 400 ☌ and 500 lb/in 2 to 2600 ppm mass at 500 ☌ and 1500 lb/in 2 181) Ĭolorless through various colors (pink, orange, purple, dark brown)Ħ-sided prism ending in 6-sided pyramid (typical), drusy, fine-grained to microcrystalline, massiveĬommon Dauphine law, Brazil law and Japan lawħ – lower in impure varieties (defining mineral)Ģ.65 variable 2.59–2.63 in impure varietiesġ670 ☌ (β tridymite) 1713 ☌ (β cristobalite)

Clear quartz crystal uses