![]() As the liquid fills the space and hardens, pressure is put on the forming crystal by the surrounding rock. Sometimes the liquid drips into small pockets inside rocks, where there isn’t much space. This can take millions of years!īut how an amethyst forms has a big influence on its final color and the shades within it… The liquid cools down slowly and the silica crystallizes, turning from being dissolved in a hot liquid to a solid crystal. Quartz forms when one of these silica-rich liquids seeps through rocks and settles in empty pockets inside the rocks. There’s a lot of silica in the Earth’s crust, and it’s carried around by very hot liquids, such as magma or water. Quartz is mainly made up of silica, which is a combination of silicon and oxygen. Areas with more iron are darker than areas with less iron.Īmethyst that’s taken from the ground usually has a white base, where there’s no iron, but this white base is often removed before the crystal is put on the market. Variations in the levels of iron create color variations in the final crystal. Sometimes more iron is in one layer and sometimes less iron finds its way into the next layer. The impurity iron gives amethyst its purple color but it also creates different shades of purple in the crystal.Īs amethyst is created underground over millions of years, iron gets added in layers. ( source) Impurities create shades of purple Heat it up even more, above 1 450 ☏ (440 ☌), and amethyst turns to citrine, a yellow or brown quartz. Heat the crystal to 1 450 ☏ (420 – 440 ☌) and it turns into green quartz, called prasiolite. When amethyst is kept below 788 ☏ (420 ☌), it keeps its purple coloring, though it starts getting lighter as we turn up the heat and prolong exposure. Very high heat causes such a reaction with the iron in the crystal that it changes an amethyst’s color – sometimes so drastically that it becomes a different crystal! Then it loses all its purple color and can even turn gray.īut don’t let things get any hotter than this or you’ll no longer have an amethyst in your hands…Įxtreme heat turns amethyst into other colors and crystals Too much UV light and high heat rob an amethyst of its color.Īny prolonged exposure to either of these, such as sunlight or high temperatures of up to 788 ☏ (420 ☌), makes an amethyst fade.Īt first the amethyst becomes lighter. This amethyst is purple because iron in pure quartz was exposed to radiation. Expose an amethyst to radiation, like X-Rays, and you can make it purple again. Radiation even works on dull and faded amethysts. If clear quartz contains iron but it’s never exposed to radioactive elements, it remains colorless and continues to be clear quartz, until it changes color (if ever). When quartz is exposed to these elements, there’s a reaction with the iron and the quartz turns purple. Many rocks have radioactive elements in them, such as radium and uranium. No matter how much iron is in quartz, it won’t turn purple unless it’s exposed to radiation. In fact, some quartz turns such a dark purple that it looks wine red or even black. The more iron there is, the deeper purple the quartz can become. And even though there’s very little iron in amethyst, there’s enough to make it possible to turn purple. Iron is called an “ impurity” because it isn’t found in pure, colorless quartz. ![]() So an amethyst is essentially a purple quartz crystal. When iron is the main impurity, quartz has the potential to turn purple and become an amethyst under the right conditions. ![]() You can read all about the differences between pink quartz and pink amethyst in this blog post. But pure quartz with the impurity hematite in it is also pink, and this is called “pink amethyst”. If the quartz does change color, it gets a new name based on the final color and the impurities that made that color.įor example, the right combination of the impurities titanium, manganese, and iron, under the right conditions, make quartz pink, so it becomes “rose quartz”. Different impurities produce different colors. If there are impurities in the quartz when the crystal forms, the quartz’s color has the potential to change depending on the type of impurities. When iron gets into it, and the right conditions happen, this clear quartz becomes purple amethyst. This is a photo of clear quartz or pure quartz. Pure quartz is clear or transparent, so it has no color. To understand why amethyst is purple, we need to know where it comes from.Īmethyst starts off as pure quartz, which is also known as clear quartz. Iron gives amethyst the potential to turn purple
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