I have a quartz crytal cluster that is about a foot long with alot of crystals comming out of it and we think there is some on the inside. Does anyone know how i can find out how much it may be worth?
1. why not 2. jewelery? 3. compression 4. the ground 5. not sure
1. Because it's there. Seriously. It's also super-abundant, if you're suggesting it's somehow obscure and insignificant. 2. Optics, piezoelectric igniters/spark generators, sonic gadgetry like oscillators and frequency detectors and crystals in the old crytal radios, water filters, semiconductors and all SORTS of electronic components, chronographs, aesthetics like jewelry, abrasives, New Age heebie-jeebies and probably HUNDREDS of uses that I can't think of or don't know. Quartz is a valuable natural resource. 3. It's a major component of many igneous rocks...forms by crystallization from an intial magmatic mass rich in silica and oxygen. There are numerous crystal forms (polymorphs). 4. Just about everwhere in the earth's crust, except in so-called ultramafic rocks, or extensive carbonates or something. Chances are if you walk outside and grab a fistful of dirt, there's quartz in it. Or grab a chunk of concrete...there's probably quartz in there too. Quartz is relatively resistant to weathering, so it often makes up the highest percentage of grains in detrital sediments- sands formed from grains that weathered out of rocks upgradient somewhere. In multi-generation sands (grains weathered from a detrital sandstone, deposited and perhaps weathered and transported again), quartz might be the only significant mineral left...think of the nice, white, squeaky beaches along the Florida panhandle coast of the Gulf o' Mexico. 5. Since you posted your query under Earth Science and Geology, you must have some inkling- it's a geologic material. It probably falls under Mineralogy...silicate mineralogy specifically. But, there are Materials Scientists and Engineers and Chemists and Physicists who are deeply interested in the properties and applications of quartz.
