Smoky quartz


Smoky quartz is a brownish grey, translucent variety of quartz that ranges in clarity from almost complete transparency to an almost-opaque brownish-gray or black crystal. Like other quartz gems, it is a silicon dioxide crystal. The smoky colour results from free silicon formed from the silicon dioxide by natural irradiation.

Varieties

Morion is a very dark brown to black opaque variety. Morion is the German, Danish, Spanish and Polish synonym for smoky quartz. The name is from a misreading of mormorion in Pliny the Elder. It has a density of 5.4.
Cairngorm is a variety of smoky quartz found in the Cairngorm Mountains of Scotland. It usually has a smoky yellow-brown colour, though some specimens are greyish-brown. It is used in Scottish jewellery and as a decoration on kilt pins and the handles of sgianan-dubha. The largest known cairngorm crystal is a specimen kept at Braemar Castle.

Uses

Smoky quartz is common and was not historically important, but in recent times it has become a popular gemstone, especially for jewellery.
Sunglasses, in the form of flat panes of smoky quartz, were used in China in the 12th century.

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