For those familiar with mineralogy, it seems like a pretty basic question, but for some reason I don't know the answer, and its not really clearly outlined in my textbook. P.S. If you love answering geology Q's, stick around the geology section I'll have several over the next few days haha.
Quartz has a chemical composition of SiO2, and Si is the most common/abundant rock forming mineral on Earth's crust. Therefore it is found in sandstone (sedimentary), which is very smaill sand sized grains of SiO2 cememented together. It is common in other sedi rocks such as shale and an accessory mineral in calcium carbonate rocks. As a metamorphic rock, a sandstone composed of quartz can become highly metamorphosed by tectonic activity( compression from heating and pressure) resulting in quartzite. Other metamorphic rocks containing quartz are shist and gneiss. Just incase you didn't know, quartz can actually be in sedimentary, metamorphic OR igneous rocks.
Quartz mineral can be found in the 3 different rock types: Sedimentary, Igneous and Metamorphic. Examples are sandstone, mica (sedimentary), granite (igneous), quartzite (metamorphic sandstone). But metamorphic granite = marble. The chemical formula for quartz is SiO2, silicon dioxide. The earth's crust has a vast quantity of 28% silicon. No matter what the state of the rock type, the composition SiO2 be the same. If the rock is metamorphic the SiO2 will be denser composition changed by heat or vast amounts of pressure compared to that of an igneous rock of the same mass.
quartz in sedimentary rock is found in sandstone, as peices of quartz are cemented together it can also occur as a chemical sedimentary rcok such as agate, chert, flint or jasper
