quartz

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SiO2. Transparent, but can be any color imaginable with impurities. No cleavage, hard, and commonly forms equant masses. Perfect crystals are hexagonal prisms topped with pyramidal shapes. One of the most common minerals, and is found in many different geologic settings, including the dominant component of sand on the surface of Earth. Structure is a three-dimensional network of silica tetrahedra, connected as much as possible to each other.

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Author: Chris

Associate Professor, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, Utah