PHYSICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF SMOKY QUARTZ
Smoky quartz is a variety of microcrystalline quartz, which owes its color (all tones of brown) to the natural irradiation or caused by the aluminum salts it contains. It belongs to the group of oxides: it is a silicon dioxide and its formula is SiO2. Smoky quartz is transparent to translucent, rarely opaque, and its luster is glassy. Its hardness is 7 on the Mohs scale and its density is constant (2,65). From conchoidal breakage, it has a trigonal crystalline system. Its fluorescence is variable and its pleochroism is weak.
THE COLORS OF SMOKED QUARTZ
The color of a smoky quartz is due to the radioactivity of the natural environment in which it has grown, the gamma rays having modified the elements and impurities it contains. Brown, gray, dark gray, black, the smoky quartz presents several shades, rarely homogeneous on all the crystal but rather distributed in bands parallel to the faces of the crystal. The Morion variety is black or very dark brown smoked quartz. The Scottish Cairngorm is rather yellow-brown. The quartz champagne recalls the color of the eponymous drink … Some smoked quartz have an effect of asterism (several rays of light on the surface, arranged asterisk) or cat’s eye (a single transverse ray as a pupil cat).
MAIN SMOKY QUARTZ DEPOSITS
Smoked quartz is quite common. It is formed in all types of geological contexts: igneous and magmatic rocks, such as pegmatites, sedimentary rocks, alpine fissures, hydrothermal veins…
The main exploited deposits are in Brazil, Madagascar, Scotland (Cairngorm variety), in Switzerland, in the Ukraine … Haute-Vienne, France, is home to large morion crystals, especially in the Monts d’Ambazac, a small massif located on the western edge of the Massif Central.
THE ADVICE OF OUR GEMOLOGIST: HOW TO CHOOSE HIS SMOKED QUARTZ?
Smoky quartz is a financially affordable stone, whose physical characteristics make it easy to work with, thus making it possible to make a wide variety of smoky quartz jewels. It can be cut in a variety of shapes: cushion, square, pear, round, emerald, briolette, cabochon, egg, sphere, shuttle, princess and many other products of the talent of lapidaries. They find there to exercise all their creativity, because it is possible to work large pieces of smoked quartz at very affordable prices.
The deepest and most translucent colors are the most appreciated, with the least possible inclusions, and this beautiful slightly misty clarity that makes all the charm of this mineral. You should know that all the beauty of smoky quartz flourishes in the soft light of the sun, especially in the morning and late afternoon, while it is less valued in artificial light.
STORIES AND LEGENDS ABOUT SMOKY QUARTZ
The smoky depths of this type of quartz inspired fortune-tellers, especially in the nineteenth century: unlike crystal rock, perfectly clear, smoked quartz assured them to keep invisible to the laymen all the mysteries that revealed to them their balls of divination…
The castle of Braemar, of the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, located in the North of Scotland, contains a huge smoky quartz crystal which weighs more than 23 kilos! Smoked quartz was widely used in Scotland, especially to decorate Scottish kilts and make pretty brooches, as well as handles of daggers: called “sgian dhu”, these traditional highland daggers are worn inside the sock so that we see beyond the handle. The latter should preferably match the spit…
Much bigger crystals are still found in Brazil (more than 300 kg), but in Swiss Valais, we found in 1757 century a smoked quartz crystal of 600 kg! As for the famous Washington museum in the United States, the Smithsonian Institution, it presents among its collections of gems a faceted cut crystal of 4500 carats, that is to say 900 grams…
VIRTUES AND BENEFITS OF SMOKY QUARTZ
In litho therapy, smoked quartz would be considered the stone of responsibility and refocusing. Thus, it would calm the too strong emotions that confuse the effective thought, and thereby improve the lucidity and the concentration. By helping to think about and eliminate irrational fears, anxieties, internal contradictions, smoky quartz would strengthen not only self-confidence but also the ability to open up to others and make the right decisions. He would drive out morose thoughts and fight depression. If the expectations of its bearer are too idealistic and far from reality, it would promote the awareness and refocusing of energies on more reasonable objectives, more accessible, avoiding failures and disillusionment.
From a physical point of view, it would help fight smoking (as well as any other form of addiction, for example to alcohol or drugs), strengthen the connective tissue and muscles (especially the heart), as well as as the kidneys, pancreas and genitals. Thus, it would have beneficial effects on fertility. The morion, the darkest of the smoked quartz, would be associated with Aries while the lighter varieties would be related to the signs of Scorpio, Libra and Capricorn. The corresponding planet is Pluto or Saturn, depending on the case.
PHYSICAL AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OF THE PEARL