Smoky Quartz Specimen with Albite and Muscovite

564g / 1.243lbs / 19.89oz

4.08" x 4.68" x 4.63"

Smoky Quartz is a variety of Quartz, a silicon dioxide mineral with a hardness of 7. Like other Quartz crystals, Smoky Quartz has a hexagonal (trigonal) crystal system and forms in prisms. Smoky Quartz can vary in color from very pale tan to deep chocolate brown. Its color comes from natural irradiation.

Albite belongs to the Plagioclase Feldspar group, an isomorphous solid solution series with a hardness of 6 to 6.5 and the crystal system of Triclinic.

Muscovite is a potassium aluminum silicate mineral with a hardness of 2.5 to 4. Its crystal system is monoclinic. It forms most frequently in tabular, pseudo-hexagonal crystals but can also occur in lamellar and cryptocrystalline habits. Its primary colors are white, gray, and colorless, but it can sometimes exhibit tinges of red, violet, yellow, green or brown. It forms in metamorphic rocks such as gneiss and schist, as well as igneous rocks like granite.