CITRINE(GEM)
Listing descrption
Citrine is a variety of quartz whose color ranges from a pale yellow to
brown. Natural citrines are rare; most commercial citrines are heat-treated amethysts
or smoky quartzes. It is nearly impossible to tell
cut citrine from yellow topaz visibly, but they differ in hardness. Citrine has ferric
impurities, and is rarely found naturally. Brazil
is the leading producer of citrine, with much of its production coming from the
state of Rio Grande do Sul. The name is derived from Latin
citrina which means "yellow" and is also the origin of the word
"citron." Sometimes citrine and amethyst can be found together in the
same crystal and is referred to as ametrine.[9]Citrine is one of three traditional birthstones for the month of November.
Detailed
description
Citrine is any quartz crystal or cluster that
is yellow or orange in color. Although often cut as a gemstone, citrine is
actually somewhat rare in nature. Most citrines on the market have been heat
treated. Specimens of low grade, inexpensive amethyst or smoky quartz are often cooked at high temperatures
to produce the more profitable orange yellow citrine. Citrines whose colors
have been produced by artificial means tend to have much more of an orange or
reddish caste than those found in nature, which are usually a pale yellow. Much
of the natural citrine may have started out as amethyst but heat from nearby magmatic
bodies may have caused the change to citrine.
The citrine geodes available in the trade are always (so far as
I am aware) the result of heat treatment of amethyst geodes.
Citrine made by
heating amethyst may be returned to a purple color by bombarding it with beta
radiation. Interestingly, a popular gemstone on the market is a mixture of half
amethyst and half citrine and is given the name ametrine, made by
heating an amethyst until it turns into citrine, then irradiating a part of the
resulting crystal or gemstone to convert that portion back to amethyst.
Unfortunately for
citrine it is often confused with the more expensive orange-yellow topaz and is at times sold as topaz by
unscrupulous dealers. This practice has soured many potential citrine fanciers
who see citrine as a fake topaz and not as a legitimate gemstone.
Citrine is only
one of several quartz varieties. Other varieties that form macroscopic (large
enough to see) crystals are as follows:
- Amethyst is the
purple gemstone variety.
- Milky Quartz is the
cloudy white variety.
- Prasiolite is a
leek-green variety.
- Rock crystal is the
clear variety that is also used as a gemstone.
- Rose quartz is a pink
to reddish pink variety.
- Smoky quartz is the
brown to gray variety.
Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in the Earth's continental crust, after feldspar. It is made up of a continuous
framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared
between two tetrahedra, giving an overall formula SiO2.
There are many
different varieties of quartz, several of which are semi-precious gemstones. Especially in Europe and the Middle
East, varieties of quartz have been since antiquity the most commonly used
minerals in the making of jewelry and hardstone carvings.
The word
"quartz" is derived from the German word "quarz", which was
imported from Middle
High German,
"twarc", which originated in Slavic (cf. Czech tvrdy ("hard"),
Polish twardy ("hard"), Russian твёрдый ("hard")), from Old
Bulgarian (Church Slavonic) тврьдъ ("firm"), from Proto-Slavic
*tvьrdъ.[6]
(Microscopic)
crystal structure
α-quartz
crystallizes in the trigonal crystal system, space group P3121
and P3221 respectively. β-quartz belongs to the hexagonal
system, space group P6221 and P6421,
respectively.[7] These spacegroups are truly chiral
(they each belong to the 11 enantiomorphous pairs). Both α-quartz and β-quartz
are examples of chiral crystal structures composed of achiral building blocks
(SiO4 tetrahedra in the present case). The transformation between α-
and β-quartz only involves a comparatively minor rotation of the tetrahedra
with respect to one another, without change in the way they are linked.
Varieties (according to color)
Pure quartz,
traditionally called rock crystal (sometimes called clear quartz),
is colorless and transparent (clear) or translucent, and has often been used for hardstone carvings, such as the Lothair Crystal. Common colored varieties include
citrine, rose quartz, amethyst, smoky quartz, milky quartz, and
others. Quartz goes by an array of different names. The most important
distinction between types of quartz is that of macrocrystalline
(individual crystals visible to the unaided eye) and the microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline varieties (aggregates of crystals
visible only under high magnification). The cryptocrystalline varieties are
either translucent or mostly opaque, while the transparent varieties tend to be
macrocrystalline. Chalcedony is a cryptocrystalline form of silica
consisting of fine intergrowths of both quartz, and its monoclinic polymorph moganite.[8] Other opaque gemstone varieties of
quartz, or mixed rocks including quartz, often including contrasting bands or
patterns of color, are agate, sard, onyx, carnelian, heliotrope, and jasper.
Citrine
Citrine is a variety of quartz whose color
ranges from a pale yellow to brown. Natural citrines are rare; most commercial
citrines are heat-treated amethysts or smoky quartzes. It is nearly impossible to tell cut
citrine from yellow topaz visibly, but they differ in hardness.
Citrine has ferric impurities, and is rarely found
naturally. Brazil is the leading producer of citrine,
with much of its production coming from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The name is derived from Latin citrina which means "yellow" and is
also the origin of the word "citron." Sometimes citrine and amethyst
can be found together in the same crystal and is referred to as ametrine.[9]
Rose quartz
Rose
quartz is a type of
quartz which exhibits a pale pink to rose red hue. The color is usually
considered as due to trace amounts of titanium, iron, or manganese, in the massive material. Some rose
quartz contains microscopic rutile needles which produces an asterism in transmitted light. Recent X-ray diffraction studies suggest that the color is due
to thin microscopic fibers of possibly dumortierite within the massive quartz.[10]
In crystal form
(rarely found) it is called pink quartz and its color is thought to be
caused by trace amounts of phosphate or aluminium. The color in crystals is apparently
photosensitive and subject to fading. The first crystals were found in a pegmatite found near Rumford, Maine, USA, but most crystals on the market come
from Minas
Gerais, Brazil.[11]
Rose quartz is
not popular as a gem – it is generally too clouded by impurities to be suitable
for that purpose. Rose quartz is more often carved into figures such as people
or hearts. Hearts are commonly found because rose quartz is pink and an
affordable mineral.
Amethyst
Amethyst is a popular form of quartz that
ranges from a bright to dark or dull purple color.
Smoky quartz
Smoky
quartz is a gray,
translucent version of quartz. It ranges in clarity from almost complete
transparency to a brownish-gray crystal that is almost opaque. Some can also be
black.
Milky quartz
Milk
quartz or milky
quartz may be the most common variety of crystalline quartz and can be
found almost anywhere. The white color may be caused by minute fluid inclusions of gas, liquid, or both, trapped
during the crystal formation. The cloudiness caused by the inclusions
effectively bars its use in most optical and quality gemstone applications.[12]
Synthetic and artificial treatments
Not all varieties
of quartz are naturally occurring. Prasiolite, an olive colored material, is
produced by heat treatment; natural prasiolite has also been observed in Lower
Silesia in Poland. Although citrine occurs naturally, the majority is the
result of heat-treated amethyst. Carnelian is widely heat-treated to deepen its
color.
Due to natural
quartz being so often twinned, much of the quartz used in industry
is synthesized. Large, flawless and untwinned crystals are produced in an autoclave via the hydrothermal
process; emeralds are also synthesized in this fashion.
While these are still commonly referred to as quartz, the correct term for this
material is silicon
dioxide[citation needed].
Occurrence
Quartz is an
essential constituent of granite and other felsic igneous rocks. It is very common in sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and shale and is also present in variable amounts as an
accessory mineral in most carbonate rocks. It is also a common constituent of schist, gneiss, quartzite and other metamorphic rocks. Because of its resistance to weathering it is very common in stream sediments
and in residual soils. Quartz, therefore, occupies the
lowest potential to weather in the Goldich
dissolution series.
Quartz occurs in hydrothermal veins as gangue along with ore minerals. Large crystals of quartz are found
in pegmatites. Well-formed crystals may reach
several meters in length and weigh hundreds of kilograms.
Naturally
occurring quartz crystals of extremely high purity, necessary for the crucibles
and other equipment used for growing silicon wafers in the semiconductor industry, are expensive and rare. A
major mining location for high purity quartz is the Spruce Pine Gem Mine in Spruce
Pine, North Carolina,
United
States.[13]
Related silica minerals
Tridymite and cristobalite are high-temperature polymorphs of SiO2 that occur in high-silica volcanic rocks. Coesite is a denser polymorph of quartz found
in some meteorite impact sites and in metamorphic rocks formed at pressures
greater than those typical of the Earth's crust. Stishovite is a yet denser and higher-pressure
polymorph of quartz found in some meteorite impact sites. Lechatelierite is an amorphous silica glass SiO2 which is formed by lightning strikes in quartz sand.
Piezoelectricity
Quartz crystals
have piezoelectric properties; they develop an electric
potential upon the application of mechanical stress. An early use of this property of
quartz crystals was in phonograph pickups. One of the most common
piezoelectric uses of quartz today is as a crystal
oscillator.
The quartz
clock is a familiar
device using the mineral. The resonant frequency of a quartz crystal oscillator
is changed by mechanically loading it, and this principle is used for very
accurate measurements of very small mass changes in the quartz
crystal microbalance
and in thin-film
thickness monitors.
PRICE
$120845.98/KG OR $54929.99/IB
For more information:
mobile: +2348039721941
contact person: emeaba uche
website: www.franchiseminerals.com
e-mail: emeabau@yahoo.com

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