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QUARTZ MOORALLA SMOKEY (miniature)
$24.75 AUD
The double terminated crystals of Mooralla Smoky Quartz are only found in one place in the world: Mooralla, Victoria, Australia.
It's double-terminated quartz crystal are formed below the surface in geodes of greenish-grey rhyolite, known as the Rocklands Rhyolite, which erupted in the Late Devonian period.
Mooralla Smoky Quartz is prized for its dark brown to black colour and transparency, often containing wispy swirls and occasionally gas bubbles in fluid inclusions (Enhydros).
The first known discovery of Mooralla Smoky Quartz was by a prospector in 1960 while exploring the area for gold.
Mining of Mooralla Smoky Quartz began quickly and continued until the early 2000s when it declined due to a number of factors, including the high cost of mining and the limited availability of the crystals. There are only a few small mines left in the area.
The name "Mooralla Smoky Quartz" comes from the Aboriginal word for "black". The Aboriginal people of the area have long used the crystals for their medicinal and spiritual properties.
Quartz is a robust crystalline mineral made up of silica, or silicon dioxide. Its structure consists of a continuous arrangement of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, where each oxygen atom is shared between two tetrahedra, resulting in the chemical formula SiO2. This classification places quartz as a framework silicate mineral in terms of structure and as an oxide mineral in terms of composition. It ranks as the second most prevalent mineral in the continental crust of Earth, following feldspar.