Quartz var. Agate

Object/Artifact

-

Crater Rock Museum

Name/Title

Quartz var. Agate

Entry/Object ID

2009.62.295

Description

Common Name: Quartz var. Agate Chemistry: SiO2 , Silicon dioxide Class: Silicates Location: Australia Description: Small rounded specimen with polished face. Banded blue and gray with orange towards the center and a white, translucent crystalline structure in the very center. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: Color is as variable as the spectrum, but clear quartz is by far the most common color followed by white or cloudy (milky quartz). Purple (Amethyst), pink (Rose Quartz), gray or brown to black (Smoky Quartz) are also common. Cryptocrystalline varieties can be multicolored. Luster is glassy to vitreous as crystals, while cryptocrystalline forms are usually waxy to dull but can be vitreous. Transparency: Crystals are transparent to translucent, cryptocrystalline forms can be translucent or opaque. Crystal System is trigonal; 3 2. Crystal Habits are again widely variable but the most common habit is hexagonal prisms terminated with a six sided pyramid (actually two rhombohedrons). Three of the six sides of the pyramid may dominate causing the pyramid to be or look three sided. Left and right handed crystals are possible and identifiable only if minor trigonal pyramidal faces are present. Druse forms (crystal lined rock with just the pyramids showing) are also common. Massive forms can be just about any type but common forms include botryoidal, globular, stalactitic, crusts of agate such as lining the interior of a geode and many many more. Cleavage is very weak in three directions (rhombohedral). Fracture is conchoidal. Hardness is 7, less in cryptocrystalline forms. Specific Gravity is 2.65 or less if cryptocrystalline. (average) Streak is white. Other Characteristics: Striations on prism faces run perpendicular to C axis, piezoelectric (see tourmaline) and index of refraction is 1.55. Associated Minerals are numerous and varied but here are some of the more classic associations of quartz (although any list of associated minerals of quartz is only a partial list): amazonite a variety of microcline, tourmalines especially elbaite, wolframite, pyrite, rutile, zeolites, fluorite, calcite, gold, muscovite, topaz, beryl, hematite and spodumene. Best Field Indicators are first the fact that it is very common (always assume transparent clear crystals may be quartz), crystal habit, hardness, striations, good conchoidal fracture and lack of good cleavage.

Collection

RAGM Mineral Collection

Acquisition

Accession

2009.62

Source or Donor

Museum Collection of Minerals

Acquisition Method

Donation

Location

Location

Building

Storage (old gift shop upstairs)

Category

Permanent