kwawrts | /kwɔrts/
Quartz is the most prevalent mineral in the Earth’s crust. Pure quartz is transparent but impurities can make it smoky, cloudy, opaque, and variously coloured. It can be crystalline, as with purple amethyst, or cryptocrystalline (very fine grained) like flint. It is found globally in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and is the main constituent of desert, river, and beach sands. Made from one part silicon and two parts oxygen, quartz is extremely durable and highly resistant to both abrasive and chemical erosion.
The many remarkable qualities of this commonplace mineral have played a significant role in our own evolution. Flint was an important material for many early humans, used to make exceptionally sharp cutting tools for hunting and butchery. Fused quartz (silica) is a major component of glass. Quartz vibrates at a consistent rate, making quartz crystal oscillators ideal components for time-keeping and transmission devices. Under pressure, quartz becomes electrically polarised – perfect for the manufacture of the circuit boards used in modern electronics such as computers and smart phones.*
The term quartz stems from the German quarz, which it has been speculated may be a distant derivation of the Ancient Greek krustallos, meaning ice – the link being that the Ancient Greeks and Romans thought of quartz as immortal ice created by the gods.
* Electronics-grade quartz crystals, known as cultured or synthetic quartz, are chemically pure and physically faultless variants grown to spec in laboratories from naturally sourced seed crystals.
Introduction Aeolian Alpenglow
Benthos Crepuscular Crispate Crown shyness
Desire lines Dreich Endragoned Edgelands
Frondescence Fumarole Gluggaveður Gossamer
Karst Komorebi Lawrence Long acre
Machair Monkey’s wedding Moonglade
Psithurism Quartz Rakuyou Roaring forties
Snag Soft estate Specular, diffuse and pellucid
Spoondrift Steam fog Swash zone Sylvan