Victoria.C
2008-12-09 04:45:36 UTC
Quartz is one of the most abundant and widlyspread of minerals in Earth's crust. We have virtually no hope I runing out in your or my life time. It is made up of one atom of silica and 2 atoms of oxygen. It has a hardness of 7 on Mohs Hardness scale and a density of 2.65. This makes it harder then most minerals and extremely resistant to chemical and meachanical weathering, which allows it to form almost anywhere!
Quartz is part of the silicates class, and the subclass of tectosilicates. Quartz and most of the other Quartz Group members are also classified here as silicates because of their structural and property similarities to other tectosilicates But, stishovite, for example, has properties and structure more closely related to the minerals of the Rutile Group and is therefore classified as an oxide. Thus, even though quartz is scientificly classified as in the silicates group the true classification of all the quartz members is still being debated and is undecided at the moment because, of the many versions of the mineral itself. As much as we over look this mineral we don't relize how dependent we are on it.
What Are The Uses Of Quartz?
Like I said, this mineral is VERY overlooked by a lot of people. These people don't realize that almost all the electronic things around them have this mineral in them. All the electronic things we use everyday such as, cell phones, your radio, your television and even your computer have this mineral in them! This is because, quartz is piezoelectric (It can produce electricity when preasured by sound waves.) But how is Quartz placed and used in these things? Well, Thin wafers of quartz grounded to the precise thickness, can transmit sound waves at fixed frequencies, making them invaluable to the things I mentioned earlier and more! A lot of electronic things probably wouldn't function as well without this mineral.
Even most of your jewelry has this mineral in it! This is because, quartz can be used in gemstones such as, Bloodstones, Agate, Tigerseye, Citrine, Carneian, Onyx and Sardonyx.
What qualitities does quartz have to help us?
Quartz has many qualities theat help us in our everyday lives for example, because of its ability to rotate the plane of polarization of light and its transparency in ultraviolet rays it is used in heat-ray lamps, prism, and spectrographic lenses. Used in the manufacture of glass, paints, abrasives, refractories, and precision instruments.
Also Cultured quartz,” that is, quartz crystals grown very carefully in highly controlled laboratory conditions, is the quartz that is used in industry. About 200 metric tons of cultured quartz is produced each year. In the production of cultured quartz crystals, a “seed crystal” is needed. A seed crystal is a small piece of carefully selected, non-electronics-grade quartz. The manufactured crystal grows on this seed crystal. Seed crystals of quartz are called lascas. The United States is 100% dependent on imported lascas for manufactured quartz crystals.
SO WHAT DOES QUARTZ LOOK LIKE?
The quartz color variation is amazingly variable. Quartz can be almost any color as well as colorless. Even though it has many colors it is almost always transparent. It crystallizes in triangular form and is found in a well-known pyramid-like configuation with various lusters. However, some versions of quartz look nothing like this.
Quartz is one of the most abundant and widlyspread of minerals in Earth's crust. Although, a lot of people overlook it they don't realizes how dependent we are on it and that things probably wouldn't function as well as, they do with out it.