Smokey Quartz Cluster

Jim found this amazing cluster of smokey quartz while digging on the Dark Star quartz claim. 

​

How we move from clear to smokey ...

​

• Quartz is deposited clear from silica-rich solutions deep within the Earth's crust, often in environments like granite or pegmatites, or similar to what we suspect to be the scarn on our Quartz claim. Thus far it has given us amazing smokey quartz clusters.

•    Over vast stretches of geological time, colorless quartz can be exposed to natural gamma radiation from nearby radioactive elements like uranium or thorium. 

• Radiation interacts with trace amounts of aluminum within the crystal's structure, creating color centers that absorb and attenuate light, which gives the quartz its characteristic smoky hue. The final color depends on the radiation's intensity and how long the crystal was exposed.

• More intense or prolonged exposure results in darker crystals. The process creates smoky quartz with a color range from light gray to a deep, nearly opaque black (known as morion). Dark Star has super-dark to water clear and everything in between.