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Identity HelpSo I’ve read that blue quartz does not exist in nature that it’s colored by something else...

12th Dec 2018 17:15 UTCTina Williams

Hi everyone!

More from upper East Tennessee. These are fresh out of a super iron out bath. My apologies for them being wet.

I wanted to send a pic in before I headed to work. I have found tons of the light blue quartz. But the large dark blue one and the two purple ones in the middle still puzzled me as to what they would be called. Are they still blue quartz? Those three seem to be heavier than the lighter colored rocks and the texture is different. I’m still learning how to describe their crystal growth. I’m thinking the deep blue one may just have a higher concentration of whatever is causing the blue color blue but the purple ones really have me baffled. If they must be dry I will send another pic in a couple days when I get them out of the soak....removing the iron out.

Thank you everybody!

12th Dec 2018 18:52 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

Blue quartz does occur natually. Please see: http://www.quartzpage.de/blue.html

12th Dec 2018 18:56 UTCKevin Hean

Blue Lace Agate ???

12th Dec 2018 19:10 UTCWayne Corwin

Tina

And the 2 others... "the two purple ones in the middle"... have deep iron staining,,,, blue quartz + red iron staining = purple like colors

And sure, show us the dry pics too.

12th Dec 2018 19:32 UTCScott Rider

Just a thought out of the blue, but could some of this be massive fluorite??? It is from Tennessee so perhaps the colors are due to them being fluorite, not quartz...

12th Dec 2018 20:18 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Looks like typical blue quartz to me. What Tina is referring to I believe, is not that blue quartz is per se "unnatural" but that all blue in Quartz is caused by inclusions of other materials, either lending a light scattering effect or the mineral inclusion itself providing the blue color (i.e Reibeckite, tourmaline dunmortierite etc) . . , no actual blue color center quartz i.e. "Natural" or "Native", has ever been discovered.

MRH

12th Dec 2018 21:41 UTCTina Williams

Yes thank you Mark that’s exactly what I meant about “ occurring in nature”.

So the large deep blue one would have a more dense concentration of say, Dumortierite in it?

That one is just so vastly different than all the others I wanted to be sure.

12th Dec 2018 21:51 UTCBob Harman

As others have noted there are a number of varieties of quartz with a bluish tint. This is in addition to well known blue quartz inclusions such as ajoite. Blue quartz comes from a number of different locations under varying conditions. Here is one type and a locality not yet mentioned.

The so called "blue quartz geodes" are well known and very collectible to geode collectors. They occur in the Keokuk Iowa location. They are quite small, but the quartz crystals have a decidedly bluish tint when compared to other similar locality varieties. I do not know the cause for the blue tint in these examples.

Pictured here is an example from my collection. This specimen, with its decidedly bluish tinted quartz, is also unusual in that it has both a calcite crystal and an acicular spray of aragonite, along with ferroan dolomite.

CHEERS......BOB

13th Dec 2018 12:30 UTCTina Williams

Wow, that’s beautiful Bob. Thank you for sharing. And thank you for the information. Very helpful.

Tina

13th Dec 2018 15:27 UTCKevin Conroy Manager

While we're on the subject, has anyone seen quartz crystals with blue areas in them from around Ouray/Silverton, Colorado? I think that they were found in the 1960's or 70's. On the specimens that I've seen the quartz crystals were about 5 - 7 cm across, and the blue areas were at the core of the crystals.

14th Dec 2018 02:16 UTCGregg Little 🌟

Bob;

Could that bluish tinge in the quartz be coming from the substrate that the clear quartz has grown on? I have a sample from India that I think demonstrates this. I would include a photo but unfortunately I am on a drill rig in a remote location and not near the specimen or a camera.

14th Dec 2018 06:44 UTCTina Williams

Gregg, I’d love to see your specimen when your back.

Be safe.

14th Dec 2018 08:24 UTCGregg Little 🌟

Okay Tina, I'll try to remember but, as you know it is xmas. If much time passes, just PM me to jog my memory.

14th Dec 2018 09:41 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Here are some samples in my own collecton. Pennsylvania has both Magnesio-riebeckite included Blue Quartz and light scattering effect Blue Quartz, (the two on the right, both associated with Graphite). Brazill has both Indicolite tourmaline and Dumortierite included Blue Quartz and of course the best of the best, Magnesio-riebeckite included Blue Quartz from Antequera, Spain which was once erroneously suggested to be included by Aerinite.

14th Dec 2018 18:33 UTCDonald B Peck Expert

I have collected blue quartz (w/magnesium riebeeckite) from Cornog PA and it was really an intense blue. Some of it also contained garnets and if I remember, was associated with pyrite. It was rather specttacular. Is the site still available?

That quartz crystal in the lower left corner (from Brazil) is a beautiful specimen!

14th Dec 2018 19:01 UTCBob Harman

Fresh microcrystalline quartz, in the form of chalcedony, from Indiana, is often a pleasing shade of blue as seen in my pictured example (pictured with Indiana smoky quartz). The blue color, in some examples, seems to gradually fade to a very pale blue-gray over a period of years. The blue color in fresh examples seems to be due to water in the micro-spaces between the microcrystalline quartz crystals.

Keeping fresh blue examples under water seems to better preserve the original color.

And, as an addendum, another recently self collected display quality example from my collection.

14th Dec 2018 20:26 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Donald,

The Keystone has been closed for some time. Flooded, fenced in and used as a water reservoir, there's really nothing left as far as any areas accessible and worthy of picking over. However the Cornog specimen I have pictured was from a small private gravel cut just NE of the quarry. Google satellite shows the area has still not been otherwise developed, so no reason to believe it's not still accessible to someone (with permission). Haven't been up that way in some time myself, so I don't know for certain.

Pennsylvania was once a classic locality well known for its' various blue quartz occurrences . . . the Coatesville specimens are actually from a locality that's been relatively newly worked, but I've not seen any material from there with exceptional color as yet. Some relatively large euhedral "sheet-like" graphite xtls have been had, but exposing them "intact" is a matter of sheer dumb luck (not a specimen producer).

23rd Dec 2018 05:30 UTCTina Williams

Will do, if I can remember myself. Maybe one of us will remember.

23rd Dec 2018 05:32 UTCTina Williams

Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing.

23rd Dec 2018 05:37 UTCTina Williams

Mark,

I’ve often wanted to go to the local quarry to look around. Is it difficult to get permission?

23rd Dec 2018 11:28 UTCLarry Maltby Expert

Here is a very blue quartz specimen from Ray, Arizona. The coloring agent is chrysocolla.

10.0 cm x 14.0 cm x 4.2 cm

23rd Dec 2018 11:50 UTCTina Williams

Oh my! That’s spectacular. I’d like one of those in my collection.

23rd Dec 2018 12:10 UTCLarry Maltby Expert

Here is another one that was displayed at the 1985 Tucson Show. Chrysocolla colored quartz is relative common in many of the copper mines in Arizona.

At the bottom of this specimen is a band of blue chalcedony. Material like that has been heavily sought after by lapidaries for cutting. A sky blue cab with even color and good translucency fetches a pretty good price. This is a pseudomorph after malachite and azurite.

24th Dec 2018 02:17 UTCTina Williams

I need to come out west. Absolutely beautiful.

21st Aug 2021 02:00 UTCPete Miles

This stuff is abundant at my buddy's place here in the mountains of Big Island VA. It's literally everywhere, like an Easter egg hunt, the mountain is belching it out.

21st Aug 2021 02:02 UTCPete Miles

That is the extent of the huge ones we've found, the rest is more like this and smaller

21st Aug 2021 02:03 UTCPete Miles

this is a good example of the variation in color

21st Aug 2021 02:05 UTCPete Miles

and some super clean

21st Aug 2021 04:00 UTCBrian Fussell

That VA Quartz is interesting, gets its color from Rutile and light scattering. I have found some as well while out that way.

21st Aug 2021 17:42 UTCPete Miles

Thanks for the input! I would love to learn anything I can about it, I have several pictures of some still attached to its 'host' stone if it helps (like this one) and would be glad to mail some to anyone who would like to analyze it, or just to have a specimen. Thanks!

21st Aug 2021 17:43 UTCPete Miles

another

21st Aug 2021 17:48 UTCPete Miles

Also, in areas where we've big digging this from below soil level (always red clay with this stuff 'wedged' within the surrounding stones), there is always lots of this clear quartz scattered among it - there with be a little pocket of blue and a little pocket of clear right next to it, about 50/50 overall where we are digging... why would that be?

21st Aug 2021 17:56 UTCPete Miles

this is 'the pit' we've been digging from

21st Aug 2021 17:59 UTCPete Miles

Its also all over the surface where rain water has been ejecting it out and down the mountain, making some quite beautiful pools in areas where the mountain springs are constantly gurgling

21st Aug 2021 18:10 UTCMark Heintzelman 🌟 Expert

Some handsome specimens. They do remind me of material I've seen from the quarries just north of Piney River, associated with Rutile as Brian Mentioned. Big Island is in a direct line south of them along the Blue Ridge mountain range, so it could well be an extension or re-emergence of similar/same geology. You've got some beautiful country all over the place down in that area!

22nd Aug 2021 12:48 UTCBrian Fussell

You may have read this already but I'll post this link for you to read.

https://www.dmme.virginia.gov/dgmr/pdf/vamin/VAMIN_VOL27_NO02.PDF

also check your messages, I would be interested in some.

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