The characters as given above apply more particularly to crystals of quartz, but in the various massive and compact varieties the material may be quite different in general appearance. Thus in the micro crystalline chalcedony (q.v.) the lustre is waxy, the fracture fibrous to even, and the external form botryoidal or stalactitic: flint and chert are compact and have a splintery fracture: jasper (q.t~.) is a compact variety intermixed with much iron oxide and clay and has a dull and even fracture. Further, these varieties may be of almost any colour, whereas transparent crystals have only a limited range of colour, being either colourless (rock-crystal), violet (amethyst), brown (smoky quartz) or yellow (citrine). Quartz occurs as a primary and essential constituent of igneous rocks of acidic composition such as granite, quartz-porphyry and rhyolite, being embedded in these either as irregularly shaped masses or as porphyritic crystals. In pegmatite (graphic granite) and granophyre it often forms a regular inter growth with felspar. It is also a common constituent, as irregular grains, in many gneisses and crystalline schists, a quartz-schist being composed largely of quartz. By the weathering of silicates, silica passes into solution and quartz is deposited as a secondary product in the cavities of basic igneous rocks, and in fact in the crevices and along the joints of rocks of almost all kinds. Extensive veins of quartz are especially frequent in schistose rocks. Vein-quartz, often of economic importance as a matrix of gold, may, however, in some cases have been of igneous origin. In mineral veins and lodes crystallized quartz is usually the most abundant gangue mineral; the crystals are often arranged perpendicular to the walls of the lode, giving rise to a “ comby " structure. In limestones of various kinds it occurs as nodules and bands of chert and flint, being in this case of organic origin. Quartz being a mineral very resistant to weathering agencies, it forms the bulk of sands and sandstones; and when the sand grains are cemented together by a later deposit of secondary quartz a rock known as quartzite results. Pseudomorphous quartz, i.e. quartz replacing other minerals, is of frequent occurrence, and as a petrifying material replacing organic remains it is often met with. As a deposit from hot springs, quartz is much less common than opal. Crystals of quartz may be readily prepared artificially by a number of methods; for example, by heating glass or gelatinous silica with water under pressure.
For particulars respecting the special characters, modes of occurrence and localities of the more important varieties of quartz, reference may be made to the following articles: AGATE, AMETHYST, Avnxrigiuxa, BLOODSTONE, CAIRNGORM, CARNELIAN, CAr's-EYE, CHALCEDONY, CuRYsoPRAsa, FL1Nr, HEi.1orRoPE, ]AsPER, MocHA-Sroxa, ONYX, ROCK-CRYSTAL, SARD, SARDONYX. For other forms of silica see OPAL and TRIDYMITE. (L. ]. S.)
QUARTZITE, in petrology, a sandstone which by the
deposit of crystalline quartz between its grains has been compacted
into a solid quartz rock. As distinguished from sandstones,
quartzites are free from pores and have a smooth
fracture, since when struck with the hammer they break through
the sand grains, while in sandstones the fracture passes through
the cementing material and the rounded faces of the grains are
exposed, giving the broken surface a rough or granular appearance.
The conversion of sandstone into quartzite is sometimes
the work of percolating water under ordinary conditions. In
the Reading beds of England, which are for the most part loose
sands, there are often many large blocks of quartzite which
weather out and are exposed at the surface, being known as
grey-wethers. The siliciitication of these rocks must have
taken place at no great depth and under ordinary pressures.
Most quartzite's, however, are found among ancient rocks,
such as the Cambrian or Pre-Cambrian. Instances are the
Lickey quartzite of Shropshire, the Holyhead quartzite of
Anglesey, the Durness quartzite of Sutherlandshire, the Banffshire
and Perthshire quartzite's and the Cherbourg quartzite.
As these rocks lie in regions where there has been a considerable
amount of metamorphism we may infer that (in addition to
time and pressure) folding and rise of temperature favour
the production of rocks of this type.
A normal quartzite has in microscopic section its clastic structure well preserved; the rounded sand grains are seen with patches of new quartz in the inter spaces, and the latter is often deposited in crystalline continuity, so that the optical properties of the grains are similar to those of the material which surrounds them: a line, of iron oxides or other impurities often indicates the boundary of the original sand grain. As might be expected, however, many of the oldest quartzite's have been crushed by folding movements and the quartz consists in large part of a mosaic of small crystalline fragments of irregular shape with interlocking margins; these are called “ sheared quartzites," and when they contain white mica in parallel crystalline flakes they become more fissile and pass into quartz-schists. Where sandstones are baked by intrusive granite or diabase they are often converted into pure quartzite, the heat evidently occasioning the deposit of interstitial quartz.
The commonest minerals in quartzite, in addition to quartz, are felspar (microcline, orthoclase, oligoclase), white mica, chlorite, iron oxides, rutile, zircon and tourmaline. Except felspar they are usually present only in small quantity; the less frequent accessories include hornblende, sillimanite, garnet, biotite, graphite, magnetite and epidote. In colour quartzites are often snowy white; they frequently have a fine angular jointing and break up into rubble under the action of frost. Quartzites are too hard and splintery to be used as building stones to any large extent: they furnish a thin and very barren soil, and because they weather slowly tend to project as hills or mountain masses. They are rarely fossiliferous (e.g. Gorran in Cornwall), though many of them contain worm casts which may be dragged out into long sinuous markings when the rock is much folded (Durness quartzite). Although much used as road stones, being very hard, they are readily crushed to powder unless well embedded in the road surface; the Cherbourg and Emborough (near Bristol) stones are employed for this purpose. Quartzite blocks may be used in tube mills for crushing and grinding ores, cements, &c.; rarely they have been adopted as a substitute for flint by Palaeolithic man for the fabrication of weapons and tools. (J. S. F.)
QUARTZ-PORPHYRY, in petrology, the name given to a
group of hemi-crystalline acid rocks containing porphyritic
crystals of quartz in a more fine-grained matrix which is usually
of micro-crystalline or felsitic structure. In the hand specimens
the quartz appears as small rounded, clear, greyish, vitreous
blebs, which are crystals (double hexagonal pyramids) with
their edges and corners rounded by resorption or corrosion.
Under the microscope they are often seen to contain rounded
enclosures of the ground-mass or fluid cavities, which are
frequently negative crystals with regular outlines resembling
those of perfect quartz crystals. Many of the latter contain
liquid carbonic acid and a bubble of gas which may exhibit
vibratile motion under high magnifying powers. In addition
to quartz there are usually phenocrysts of felspar, mostly
orthoclase, though a varying amount of plagioclase is often
present. The felspars are usually full and cloudy from the
formation of secondary kaolin and muscovite throughout
their substance. Their crystals are larger than those of quartz
and sometimes attain a length of two inches. Not uncommonly
scales of biotite are visible in the specimens, being hexagonal
plates, which may be weathered into a mixture of chlorite and
epidote. Other porphyritic minerals are few, but hornblende,
augite and bronzite are sometimes found, and garnet, cordierite
and muscovite may also occur. The garnets are small, of
rounded shape and red or brownish colour; in some cases they
appear to have been corroded or absorbed. Cordierite forms
six-sided prisms with flat ends; these divide, between crossed
nicols, into six triangular areas radiating from a centre, as the
crystals, which belong to the rhombic system, are not simple
but consist of three twins interpenetrating and crossing. In
the vast majority of cases the cordierite has weathered to an
aggregate of scaly chlorite and muscovite; this is known as
pinite and is of dark green colour and very soft. The quartz-porphyries
or elvans which occur as dikes in Cornwall and
Devon frequently contain this mineral. The augite and hornblende
of these rocks are in most cases green, and are frequently
decomposed into chlorite, but even then can usually be identified
by their shape. A colourless rhombic pyroxene (enstatite or
bronzite) occurs in a limited number of the rocks of this group
and readily weathers to bastite. Apatite, magnetite, and
zircon, all in small but frequently perfect crystals, are almost
universal minerals of the quartz-porphyries.
The ground-mass is finely crystalline and to the unaided eye has usually a dull aspect resembling common earthenware; it is grey, green, reddish or white. Often it is streaked or banded by fluxion during cooling, but as a rule these rocks are not vesicular. Two main types may be -recognized by means of the microscope—the felsitic and the microcrystalline. In the former the ingredients are so fine-grained that in the thinnest slices they cannot be determined by means of the microscope. Some of these rocks show perlitic or spherulitic structure, and such rocks were probably originally glassy (obsidians or pitchstones), but by lapse of time and processes of alteration have slowly passed into very finely crystalline state. This change is called devitrification; it is common in glasses, as these are essentially unstable. A large number of the finer quartz-porphyries are also in some degree silicified or
