This holiday season, why not get a mineral every day instead of chocolate? Today’s mineral is Quartz find out more about it below..

I dearly love this time of year, the sparkly lights, the cheerful music, the parties, the snuggly blankets, the cheesy movies – its FANTASTIC! And one of my favourite things is decorating the tree and our tree is a beauty!

Sparkly lights, lovely pine smell – the tree is the best!

Baubles are the glowing circular icing on the cake of the tree, and the best quality ones are made of glass. These baubles are often based on the original vintage baubles that were used throughout the last century. And glass is made from silica, the crystal form of which is Quartz!

Lovely vintage glass baubles from nordichouse.co.uk

A lovely quartz crystal photo from the MinDat website, taken by Rock Currier.

 Quartz:

Chemical formula: SiO₂
Colour: Colorless, Purple, Rose, Red, Black, Yellow, Brown, Green, Blue, Orange, and so on!
System: Trigonal
Hardness (Mohs): 7
Can you find it in the UK? Yes!

You can find quartz crystals all over the place, you can even find it easily yourself, especially on the beach!

Look for quartz crystals on the beach – but be aware that they will probably look rougher and white in colour than the lovely crystals you see in the shop!

For more information about Quartz please visit the MinDat website.