Smoky Quartz
Quartz & Crystal Family
Smoky quartz is the transparent to nearly opaque gray, brown, or black variety of quartz. Natural radiation acting on aluminium-related defects in its crystal lattice creates the smoky color, which may be even or arranged in zones and phantom layers.
Identity
- Material or variety
- Quartz
- Scientific or material identity
- Quartz
- Classification
- Natural mineral or mineral variety
- Aliases or trade names
- Morion · Cairngorm quartz
- Composition or formula
- SiO₂
- Crystal system or structure
- Trigonal
- Geological or manufacturing origin
- Can form in more than one geological environment, or combines several materials.
- Mohs hardness
- 7
- Specific gravity
- 2.65
Origins
Bolivia · Brazil · Kenya · Madagascar · Mozambique · Myanmar · Sri Lanka · UK · USA
Appearance & optical properties
smoky translucent gray-brown quartz.
History & discovery
The modern name describes its smoke-like color. Very dark material is called morion, while Cairngorm names smoky yellow-brown quartz from Scotland’s Cairngorm Mountains. Flat smoky quartz panes were used in China in the twelfth century to darken vision.
Uses & care
- Common uses
- Smoky quartz is faceted for jewelry, cut into beads and carvings, and collected as crystals. Cairngorm material has also decorated Scottish kilt pins and knife handles.
- Handling and cleaning
- Clean with warm water, mild detergent, and a soft brush. Protect it from sharp impacts and prolonged strong light or high heat, which can weaken its smoky color; avoid steam for included or fractured stones.
Jewellery
5 pieces of Smoky Quartz jewellery. Learners earn each one in DigMyGem by learning words; until then it shows as a silhouette.
Cairngorm Plaid Brooch
Brooch
Scottish plaid brooches have long been set with cairngorm, the smoky quartz of the Cairngorm Mountains. This imagined piece follows that Highland tradition.
Morion Seal Pendant
Pendant
An imagined pendant using morion, the near-black opaque form of smoky quartz. The flat underside is cut to press a seal into wax.
Highland Mist Ring
Ring
An imagined ring in the Victorian Scottish style, set with one grey-brown stone. Queen Victoria's taste for Scottish stones made such pieces fashionable.
Cairngorm Bracelet
Bracelet
A nineteenth-century silver bracelet set with one large and two smaller amber-coloured cairngorms, the smoky quartz associated with the Cairngorms of Scotland. From the eighteenth century cairngorm was worn in jewellery tied to Highland dress.
Chieftain's Cairngorm Dirk
Jewel
An imagined Highland dress dirk with a great faceted cairngorm, the smoky quartz of Scotland, crowning its carved black hilt.