mineral
Dyed Crackle Quartz
Silicon Dioxide (SiO2) with dye
Hardness: 7 Mohs; Color: Electric blue (unnatural); Luster: Vitreous; Structure: Hexagonal; Specific Gravity: 2.65; Highly fractured appearance.
- Hardness
- 7 Mohs
- Color
- Electric blue (unnatural)
- Luster
- Vitreous
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Physical properties
Hardness: 7 Mohs; Color: Electric blue (unnatural); Luster: Vitreous; Structure: Hexagonal; Specific Gravity: 2.65; Highly fractured appearance.
Formation & geological history
Natural quartz is heated then quickly quenched in cold water to create internal fractures (thermal shock), which are then filled with blue dye.
Uses & applications
Decorative use, metaphysical collections, and inexpensive jewelry like beads or wire-wrapped pendants.
Geological facts
The 'crackle' effect is a human-induced thermal shock. In natural form, quartz would not have this density of uniform fractures or such vivid localized pigment concentration.
Field identification & locations
Identify by looking for dye pools within the fractures and a color that appears too intense to be natural. Natural blue minerals like Celestite are much softer and lack these internal cracks.
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Epidote
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