Smoky quartz is a popular variety of quartz. It has an unusual color for a gemstone and is easily recognized and is well known by the general public. Only a few other brown or black minerals are ever cut for gemstones such as the smoky topaz, the very rare black beryl or the brown corundum. Smoky quartz is also popular as an ornamental stone and is carved into spheres, pyramids, obilisks, eggs, figurines and ornate statues.

Smoky quartz, a variety itself of quartz, has a few varieties of its own.

• Cairngorm is a variety that comes from the Cairngorm Mountains in Scotland.
• Morion is a very dark black opaque variety of smoky quartz.
• Coon tail quartz is a smoky quartz with an alternating black and gray banding.

The color of smoky quartz is variable from brown to black and sometimes smoky gray colored specimens are included as smoky quartz. The cause of the color of smoky quartz is in question but it is almost certainly related to the amount of exposure to radiation that the stone has undergone. Natural smoky quartz often occurres in granitic rocks which have a small but persistant amount of radioactivity. Most smoky quartz that makes its way to rock shops and to some gem cutters has been artificially irradiated to produce a dark black color.

Natural smoky quartz comes from many sources around the world. A few of the more noteworthy locations include Brazil, the worlds largest supplier; Pikes Peak area of Colorado, USA, where it is associated with green amazonite and the Swiss Alps, which has produced many tons of fine specimens.

VARIETY INFORMATION:

• VARIETY OF: Quartz , SiO 2 .
• USES: Gemstone and ornamental stone.
• COLOR: various shades of black and brown.
• INDEX OF REFRACTION: 1.544-1.553
• BIREFRINGENCE: 0.009
• HARDNESS: 7
• CLEAVAGE: none
• CRYSTAL SYSTEM: trigonal