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Quartz is our most common mineral. Quartz is made of the two most abundant chemical elements on Earth: oxygen and silicon. Atoms of oxygen and silicon join together as tetrahedrons (three sided pyramids). These stack together to build crystals. Billions of tetrahedrons are needed to build even a small crystal. Quartz is an almost pure chemical compound with constant physical properties.
Quartz makes up about 12 percent of the land surface and about 20 percent of the Earth's crust. Most of the remaining crustal rocks are rich in silicate minerals which include silicon and oxygen together with other elements.
Quartz is divided into two groups; crystalline or visible crystals and cryptocrystalline or hidden crystals which, require a microscope.
Crystalline quartz is found as tiny crystal frostings sparkling on a rock surface as well as well-formed crystals weighing tonnes. Quartz crystals are named from the colour of the crystals:
Purple- amethyst
Pink&#; rose- tiny amounts of titanium oxide crystals (rutile) give it the pink colour
Clear- rock crystal (originally thought to be frozen water)
White- Milky Quartz&#; tiny bubbles in the crystals give it the milky appearance
Yellow, brown and black&#; smoky quartz&#; natural radiation in the rocks causes colouration
Crystalline quartz has a hardness of 7.0 making it suitable for use as a gemstone.
Crystalline quartz is the most common weathering-resistant mineral. This explains its presence as the main ingredient in beach sand. In some parts of the world beach sand has a thin layer of silica gel on the outside. This causes the sand to squeak when walked on.
Birds migrating from Canada to warmer climates in the fall take with them quartz sand grains in their crops. These sand grains are found in areas where no other deposits of sand are to be found.
Chalcedony or cryptocrystalline quartz does not form visible crystals.
Banded agate is formed by the deposition of silicon dioxide from a hot water solution. Tiny amounts of iron and other impurities give it a variety of colours. Most of the bright colours of agate (pink, green, blue) are formed by dyeing grey and white banded agate. Some brown agates are coloured by heating. Some agate preserves petrified wood and dinosaur bone. Even the microscopic cells are replaced so that the original tree can be identified or dinosaur bone structure studied.
Flint and chert are examples of cryptocrystalline quartz without banding. These are usually found as gray, black or white nodules in limestone and dolostone. Silica dissolved and precipitated from sponge spicules and microscopic plants such as diatoms form flint and chert. For centuries this material was chipped into arrowheads and other tools.
Jaspers are usually yellow, orange and brown due to the presence of iron.
Chrysoprase is coloured green by the presence of nickel.
Opal is silicon dioxide with additional water. The rainbow colours of opal are formed by layers of tiny opal spheres which interfere with the light in the same way that an oil film floating on water causes colours to appear. Opal is deposited by hot springs, or by low temperature water. The largest accumulations of opal are the siliceous skeletons of silica secreting organisms such as diatoms and grasses.
Silicon
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Silicon is used in the steel industry as a constituent of silicon-steel alloys. Silicon is also used as an alloy in copper, brass and bronze. Silicon is a semiconductor, in which the resistivity to the flow of electricity at room temperature ranges between that of metals and that of insulators. The conductivity of silicon can be controlled by adding small amounts of impurities, called dopants. The ability to control the electrical properties of silicon, and its abundance in nature, have made possible the development and widespread application of transistors and integrated circuits used in the electronics industry. Silica and silicates are used in the manufacture of glass, glazes, enamels, cement and porcelain, and have important individual applications. Fused silica, a glass made by melting quartz or hydrolyzing silicon tetrachloride, has a low coefficient of expansion and high resistance to most other chemicals. Silica gel is a colourless, porous, amorphous substance. It is prepared by removing part of the water from a gelatinous precipitate of silicic acid, which is formed by adding hydrochloric acid to a solution of sodium silicate. Silica gel absorbs water and other substances and is used as a drying and decolourizing agent.
Silicon metal
Silicon metal is produced by the removal of the oxygen from the quartz. Raw silicon metal is grown on a seed crystal in a furnace at ¼C. Crystals 15 to 20 cm in diameter can be produced in this way. Slices of this crystal are cut, polished and photo etched to create computer chips and solar cells.
Silicone
Silicones combine organic materials such as oil, rubber and plastic with silicon.
Quartz was the mineral upon which the Stone Ages were based. With few exceptions, most early stone tools were fashioned of quartz. Outcrops of quartz that were suitable for tool manufacturing were targeted by some of the earliest known mining activities and the mined quartz was traded across vast distances, even before humans began to establish agricultural societies.
Even in our modern world, quartz is one of the most widely used minerals, though few people are aware of its many contributions. One of its most common uses is also its most transparent, as quartz is the source of most of our society&#;s glass- from windowpanes and crystal goblets to eyeglasses and cathedrals&#; stained glass windows. Quartz is one of the most common minerals because it is chemically and physically stable at Earth&#;s surface conditions. It is a significant component of hydrothermal veins and felsic igneous rocks, and is often the dominant mineral in sandstones and siltstones, as well as their metamorphosed equivalents.
Quartz occurs in a wide range of varieties under a bewildering array of informal names, such as jasper, flint, tiger&#;s eye, amethyst, citrine, chalcedony, onyx, opal and agate. Because of their abundance, the quartz varieties are often subdivided into informal groups. One of the most common subdivisions is &#;chert&#;, a term collectively used for all the quartz varieties that have crystals too small to be seen without a microscope. In this use, &#;chert&#; is simply a subset of &#;quartz&#;.
Despite its variable appearance, Quartz&#; hardness (greater than that of glass or most metals) and lack of cleavage make it relatively easy to distinguish from other minerals. Ancient Greeks called quartz &#;krystallos&#;, which means &#;ice&#;, a reflection of the clarity of quartz&#; clear transparent crystals. Although most quartz crystals are clear and colorless, slight chemical impurities create a number of color varieties, some of which are common enough to have their own names. Translucent purple crystals are called amethyst which has been designated as February&#;s birthstone. Translucent pink to reddish quartz is known as rose quartz, while translucent gray and cloudy white crystals are respectively called smoky quartz and milky quartz. In a similar manner, quartz that is composed of microscopic crystals (chert) can occur in a wide variety of colors. The most common chert color varieties are flint (dark gray to black), jasper (red to red-brown), and onyx (mixed white and black). Agate is another variety of chert that exhibits distinct bands of color that formed as the chemistry of the fluids moving through its host rock changed slightly.
Quartz is a common component of silica-rich igneous rocks, forming up to 25% of the volume of granites. It also occurs in hydrothermal veins and pegmatites. Because quartz is relatively stable at surface temperatures and pressures, it can be concentrated by weathering processes to be even more abundant in sedimentary rocks than it is in igneous rocks. Quartz sand grains are a significant component of most sandstones and siltstones, and some detrital sedimentary rocks are almost exclusively composed of quartz grains. Metamorphism of these sedimentary rocks produces quartzite, a metamorphic rock composed almost entirely of quartz.
Quartz&#; stability, even under harsh chemical conditions, was aptly demonstrated by some dinosaurs that swallowed stones to aid in the digestion of land plants. These gizzard stones, called gastroliths, are almost always composed solely of quartz. Other stones the dinosaur may have swallowed broke down in the swirl of its strong stomach acids, only leaving quartz rocks to survive as working gastroliths.
Although it is chemically resistant, quartz is weakly soluble so most natural waters contain some dissolved silica that can precipitate as quartz. Hence quartz is a common vein-filling and cavity-filling mineral in rocks through which silica-rich waters have moved. Some microscopic marine plankton, like diatoms and radiolarians, take advantage of the dissolved silica in seawater to create shells of quartz. These can accumulate on the sea floor, particularly in deep sea areas. Under very high pressure, water can dissolve calcite and aragonite shells rather easily, while less soluble quartz shells are left to form quartz-rich deposits. Microscopic quartz crystals often form chert seams and nodules as silica-rich groundwater moves through a variety of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. Chert precipitated from silica-rich groundwater can also replace bone and wood present in sediment and sedimentary rocks, often even preserving the materials&#; original cellular structure. This process is the origin of &#;petrified&#; wood.
Since quartz occurs in so many different geological settings, it can be associated with many different minerals. In igneous rocks and pegmatites, quartz usually occurs with potassium feldspars, muscovite, biotite and amphiboles. In sedimentary rocks or metamorphosed sedimentary rocks, quartz may be associated with potassium feldspar, calcite, dolomite or a variety of clay minerals.
So many varieties of quartz have played such crucial roles in human society that untangling the web of names and terms is daunting. The word &#;quartz&#; appears to have originated from the German or Saxon languages, but the meaning of the term is unknown.
In our earliest human experience, the microcrystalline varieties of quartz played an unparalleled role in setting our ancestors on the path towards modern civilization. The many varieties of chert were some of the first materials beyond wood and bone to be sculpted into tools. When a piece of chert is struck, it can break with conchoidal fracture to create a sharp edge. Early humans learned to work chert, breaking it systematically to create tools. Now millions of years old, some of these tools still have remarkably sharp edges, a testimony to quartz&#; stability. Later, humans learned to work obsidian (volcanic glass) as well, but even through the Neolithic Age, most stone tools were made from chert.
Its use in our modern world is nearly as prevalent. Although glass is one of its most familiar products, our society has a remarkable range of uses for quartz. Large amounts are used as flux in metallurgy and as an abrasive and filler in refractories. Crucibles designed for use at high temperatures are made of fused silica, and pure quartz sands are also used in the manufacture of glass and glass ceramics. Quartz-rich rocks like quartzite and quartz sandstone are often used as building stones and some colored quartz varieties are used as ornamental and semi-precious stones. By volume though, the bulk of all commercially mined quartz is used in the construction industry as aggregate for concrete and as sand in mortar and cement. As a result, from buildings to roads a remarkable amount of our modern infrastructure is built of quartz.
Because of its physical strength, ground quartz is used as an abrasive in stonecutting, sandblasting, and scouring soaps. Since it is chemically stable, crushed quartzite fragments are often used as ballast (finely broken rock fragments) along railroad lines and highway shoulders. Pure, fine quartz sands are also used in water purification systems as a filter since it will not react with the water and the pores between the sand grains are small enough to filter out many impurities. Many species of marine plankton, called diatoms, construct their shells of quartz. As these microscopic organisms die, they sink down to cover the deep sea floor with layers of porous diatom shells. Ancient deep sea diatom deposits now exposed at the Earth&#;s surface are called diatomaceous earth. Diatomaceous earth has some unusual uses. It is used to filter some of the best wines and as the abrasive part of toothpaste. Since it is composed of quartz, the shells are harder than the apatite and calcite minerals that make up our teeth. When you polish your teeth, you actually are grinding the surface down with a very fine abrasive, often the shells of long dead plankton.
One of the more interesting properties of some pure quartz crystals is that they are piezoelectric &#; that means that when it is put under pressure, the crystal produces an electric voltage. This characteristic allows quartz crystals to be used to measure pressures or control the frequency of electric impulses, which led to their use in radio systems and timepieces.
Quartz veins are also important host rocks for gold and other precious metals, and were the target of many mining &#;rushes&#;. From a historic perspective, however, the single most important use of quartz may have been to start fires. When chert is struck against iron, it produces a relatively long-lived spark. From prehistoric times on, this has been one of the most reliable and widespread means of starting a fire until the advent of matches, and was the basic firing mechanism of colonial age flintlock muskets.
Since quartz is hard and comes in many color varieties, the chert forms of quartz are often used a gemstones. Jasper, tiger&#;s eye, amethyst, and citrine are all varieties of chert used as gems for jewelry. Onyx is a name used for both a banded variety of quartz and a banded variety of calcite, so don&#;t be confused by the term&#;s double use. Both types of onyx are used as decorative stone, but differ in their uses. Calcite onyx is much softer than quartz onyx and is more easily carved, so it is used for most &#;onyx&#; carvings. Since it is harder, quartz onyx is more frequently used for jewelry and other objects that must withstand greater handling and wear.
Opal is a well-known gemstone often mistaken as a variety of finely crystalline quartz (chert). Like quartz, it is composed largely of SiO2, but with the addition of water [SiO2-(H20)n]. Technically opal is not a true mineral though, but something called a mineraloid. Mineraloids are amorphous solids, which means that they do not have a set crystal structure. To be a true mineral, a solid must have a crystalline structure. Opal is found as a vein-filling or void-filling material in rocks through which silica-rich waters have moved. There are other minerals, besides quartz, that are also composed solely of silicon dioxide (SiO2), but most of these are only stable at high pressure or temperature, so they rarely occur at the Earth&#;s surface. Although opal is technically neither a variety of quartz nor even a true mineral, in the jewelry trade it is often considered as both.
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