and he is a incredible teacher. what he says in one sentence makes you really understand it it's the way he's really thinking about it. it's amazing how he can communicate it so well
When I first got into collecting I picked up a beautiful quartzite rock the size of a fist in a muddy field from the Pentland hills near Edinburgh, Scotland. Took it home and stuck it in the dishwasher to get it cleaned up, sat down with my cup of tea and waited. Then suddenly remembered reading somewhere that quartz dissolves in hot water and I panicked 😱 till I googled to see at what temperature this would happen, not till over 100°C 🤣🤣🤣 my sample was ok
archaeologist here, sick of arguing with my colleagues in the field about this. Thank you for posting! (chert vs chalcedony and basalt vs dacite are other contentious lithic materials for us to identify in the field)
As far as countertops go, quartzite is still the natural stone, but quartz countertops are considered man-made because they are manufactured by combining the quartz mineral with a polymer-based resin which is then fabricated into countertops. Thank you so much for making this video! It helped me understand the difference between the mineral and the rock, and gain more knowledgeable about trying to identify them! :)
i had a beautiful greenish or bluish tinted quartzite rock, jagged, not rounded, when i was like 9 years old. i loved the flaky crystal bits on it. i didnt know what it was, but i loved it. its lost. but, unless it was smashed by a bulldozer against concrete, its still out there somewhere, and unless it makes it into the ocean or a river it will remain as it was, barring volcanic eruptions and boulders falling on it, for the next billion years.... all my lost rocks, if high on the mohs scale, are out there.
Thank you for clarifying! It seemed that the more I studied, the more questions I had. Your explanations are so easy to understand that I can now see a more logical path to follow.
Just had to explain this to my husband!!! I needed some inert rocks, so I was gathering up quartzite and my husband says “don’t you mean quartz?” He even googled it and came up with the countertop differentiation that you mentioned lol. So I found this video and your teaching method is fantastic.
Found some quartzite here in Ohio, after a tree removal company dug up an old tree & brought up some debris with it from underground. Also found one that didn’t look like it had any sandstone deposits, but yet looked more like a bunch of small quartz that bound together; making a quartz ball with a bunch of small quartz crystals. Pretty cool find!
Thank you for the explosion the information helped me understand a lot more about what I work with and a common mistake I used to make when working out in the field.
Heat and pressure are easy when there is an electric discharge present. I love your videos by the way, just found you today watching Quartz vs Calcedony vs Chert vs Jasper. Excellent explanations!
This is great! You just helped me identify some beautiful rocks!! I found several pink/yellow/white stones by a stream. They were smooth and let light pass through. No fizz with vinegar and easily scratches glass. The grains look a little courser when you break the stone, but the stones look just like the water smoothed stones you showed! I'm so excited to label my latest find! Thank you! New subscriber here!
I found a rock and it's really hard feels wax and one side is white, looks like it was painted but I dont think so cause it was found in a field.. Gotta learn the different rocks I 've become a rock hunter here lately.
Great presentation! I suppose that might be why quartzite is so hard to tumble with out bruising? I imagine it wears away the layers to expose those less fused grains?
Ok so here is a question From a prospector perspective speaking…. Let’s say, most free or alluvial gold is associated with Quarz veins / Ironstone , when looking at such a Quarz Vein it could be said, that it resembles very close the Quartzite. True or false? Also sometimes I find large Quarz type rocks that appear to be shattered into larger almost always into “square blocks” but these rocks are totally solid, how or why does that happen and what are they? Interesting topic 🤔
So quartzite is a metamorphic rock formed by millions of years of heat and pressure on a quartz sand deposit. But those quartz sand grains obviously had to come from an igneous quartz vein that "boiled up into a fault and was exposed to erosion and abrasion by other rocks and gravel washing over it to make that quartz sand that got changed into to quartzite?
Thank you very much! I've been trying to figure out exactly what I have and I'm pretty sure it's quartzite! I have a fenced in area in my back yard for my dogs and we put pea gravel down and my fiance bought "Maryland River Rock" and I put it surrounding the fence area. I started noticing what looked like crystals in the broken rocks, so I started collecting the real clear ones, which a lot are still fused with not so clear parts. Could you tell me what I can use to cut the clear parts out? I was thinking of a drill with diamond coated drill bits? I know this might not sounds like it makes sense, coming from someone who is definitely not an expert in this area.😂 I wish I was able to post pictures in the comments so I could show you what I mean.
I bought a mine finds (Jay King) necklace in clearance which he said was super rare… eagles eye grey quartzite. Your video was helpful. I’m always wondering if it’s really rare when he says it it but I feel he is honest and has integrity so I assume it is. Can you tell me if eagles eye grey quartzite would be same as Pietersite ?
The same reason rocks are so stable and organic creatures decompose. Breaking the bonds of Silicon based “food” wouybe much more energy consuming than the very “happy to change bonds” carbon
00:10:00 quartzite - you don't have any samples of pink sioux quartzite, visit sioux falls, south dakota. look up what I'm talking about :) please let me know your thoughts!
How did the Pink Sioux Quartzite get formed - it's a single rock 30 miles wide 60 miles long and up to 1 to 3 miles thick in southeast south dakota, minnesota for the most part. - formed by the ancient inland sea? or the edge of it depositing quartz silica and glaciers from the last ice age crushed and compressed it to form it? are there other minerals that accumulated around this huge formation on the north canada facing side from glacial movement above it? Answer - no one knows - but I live in Sioux Falls, the pinkest city in the country in south dakota - every old building is made of pink sioux quartzite - our roads use it - they used to be all pink sioux quartzite cobblestone - very very very hard rock and heat does nothing to it. It's why this area was first settled by people. It's not explored at all. only 2 studies I've ever found are crazy old and they don't go into anything very much in detail.
I just found pink quartzite (all rose quartz grains from opaque to clear) from a shallow glacial lake deposit with calcium carbonate on top side of some from that Lake, also the purple reformed back to crystals in some cases and is said to originate in Wisconsin as well as possible deposits from North of Manitoulin Island vein with pink k-spar and solid white quartzite as well as reformed clear quartz crystal from sand grains internally flawless from the fusion and some have a few sand grain fracture dots from incomplete fusion which just adds rainbow colors inside, also regrown rose quartz and pegamatite crystals through normal sandstone and limestone that has been heated, most of the larger quartzite rocks are the shape of limestone pockets and some grew from inside empty shells. Many quartz crystals some fist sized and clear but not all flawless, as the bigger they get the more flaws, even a fist sized rose quartz with pink on the outside from the host rock it was in, maybe k-spar, maybe rose quartz. Every stone is a crystal and some reflect light back like silk all down the side from the top or bottom and most have the shape of the hole it formed in and flat tops with jagged edge and the larger crystals are on the tops.
and he is a incredible teacher. what he says in one sentence makes you really understand it it's the way he's really thinking about it. it's amazing how he can communicate it so well
You got me to understand the difference... learning has occurred. Thanks!
When I first got into collecting I picked up a beautiful quartzite rock the size of a fist in a muddy field from the Pentland hills near Edinburgh, Scotland. Took it home and stuck it in the dishwasher to get it cleaned up, sat down with my cup of tea and waited. Then suddenly remembered reading somewhere that quartz dissolves in hot water and I panicked 😱 till I googled to see at what temperature this would happen, not till over 100°C 🤣🤣🤣 my sample was ok
Excellent, sir! "Clears" up a lot of my confusion.
Just started rock hunting got alot to try and identify and this is super helpful. Thank You
archaeologist here, sick of arguing with my colleagues in the field about this. Thank you for posting! (chert vs chalcedony and basalt vs dacite are other contentious lithic materials for us to identify in the field)
As far as countertops go, quartzite is still the natural stone, but quartz countertops are considered man-made because they are manufactured by combining the quartz mineral with a polymer-based resin which is then fabricated into countertops.
Thank you so much for making this video! It helped me understand the difference between the mineral and the rock, and gain more knowledgeable about trying to identify them! :)
But it's misleading to say that it's man made. It's natural with man made material added to it.
i had a beautiful greenish or bluish tinted quartzite rock, jagged, not rounded, when i was like 9 years old. i loved the flaky crystal bits on it. i didnt know what it was, but i loved it. its lost. but, unless it was smashed by a bulldozer against concrete, its still out there somewhere, and unless it makes it into the ocean or a river it will remain as it was, barring volcanic eruptions and boulders falling on it, for the next billion years.... all my lost rocks, if high on the mohs scale, are out there.
Excellent presentation. Thank you!
Thank you for clarifying! It seemed that the more I studied, the more questions I had. Your explanations are so easy to understand that I can now see a more logical path to follow.
Just had to explain this to my husband!!! I needed some inert rocks, so I was gathering up quartzite and my husband says “don’t you mean quartz?”
He even googled it and came up with the countertop differentiation that you mentioned lol. So I found this video and your teaching method is fantastic.
Found some quartzite here in Ohio, after a tree removal company dug up an old tree & brought up some debris with it from underground. Also found one that didn’t look like it had any sandstone deposits, but yet looked more like a bunch of small quartz that bound together; making a quartz ball with a bunch of small quartz crystals. Pretty cool find!
Thank you! All thar Googling countertop stuff was so frustrating. Glad I found this!
Very informative! Thank you! Please do more!
I second this :)
Thank you for the explosion the information helped me understand a lot more about what I work with and a common mistake I used to make when working out in the field.
Thank you for this! I have now identified the rock that I have found in the Baja California mountainsides.
Heat and pressure are easy when there is an electric discharge present. I love your videos by the way, just found you today watching Quartz vs Calcedony vs Chert vs Jasper. Excellent explanations!
Thank you. You have clarified something I’ve been wondering for a few years. A stone I have is Blue/Purple Quartzite. 😀👍
This is great! You just helped me identify some beautiful rocks!! I found several pink/yellow/white stones by a stream. They were smooth and let light pass through. No fizz with vinegar and easily scratches glass. The grains look a little courser when you break the stone, but the stones look just like the water smoothed stones you showed! I'm so excited to label my latest find! Thank you! New subscriber here!
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Some kinds were made when quartz grains, carried by water, slowly replaced the cement in the sandstone that held the sand grains together.
Thus, quartzite is a rock made of quartz sand cemented by quartz.
I found a rock and it's really hard feels wax and one side is white, looks like it was painted but I dont think so cause it was found in a field.. Gotta learn the different rocks I 've become a rock hunter here lately.
Could be calcite.
Thanks so much, that was very clear 😊
You mention green is cool but harder to find. I found what I believe is a 150lb boulder. Do you help identify?
So where did the quartz that became quartzite sandstone originally come from? Were there quartz mountains hundreds of millions of years ago?
Great presentation! I suppose that might be why quartzite is so hard to tumble with out bruising? I imagine it wears away the layers to expose those less fused grains?
Wry good explanation. I was at a meteor impact site yesterday looking for the shocked quartz. Do you have any videos on that???
Thank you! Quartzite looks like sparkly dough
Ok so here is a question
From a prospector perspective speaking….
Let’s say, most free or alluvial gold is associated with Quarz veins / Ironstone , when looking at such a Quarz Vein it could be said, that it resembles very close the Quartzite.
True or false?
Also sometimes I find large Quarz type rocks that appear to be shattered into larger almost always into “square blocks” but these rocks are totally solid, how or why does that happen and what are they?
Interesting topic 🤔
So quartzite is a metamorphic rock formed by millions of years of heat and pressure on a quartz sand deposit. But those quartz sand grains obviously had to come from an igneous quartz vein that "boiled up into a fault and was exposed to erosion and abrasion by other rocks and gravel washing over it to make that quartz sand that got changed into to quartzite?
Thank you very much! I've been trying to figure out exactly what I have and I'm pretty sure it's quartzite! I have a fenced in area in my back yard for my dogs and we put pea gravel down and my fiance bought "Maryland River Rock" and I put it surrounding the fence area. I started noticing what looked like crystals in the broken rocks, so I started collecting the real clear ones, which a lot are still fused with not so clear parts. Could you tell me what I can use to cut the clear parts out? I was thinking of a drill with diamond coated drill bits? I know this might not sounds like it makes sense, coming from someone who is definitely not an expert in this area.😂 I wish I was able to post pictures in the comments so I could show you what I mean.
So, is the quant 1.5 million dollar Italian quartz bathtub quartz or quartzite?
I bought a mine finds (Jay King) necklace in clearance which he said was super rare… eagles eye grey quartzite. Your video was helpful. I’m always wondering if it’s really rare when he says it it but I feel he is honest and has integrity so I assume it is. Can you tell me if eagles eye grey quartzite would be same as Pietersite ?
This video is extremely helpful
It makes me wonder why we are not silica based organisms if the earth’s crust is mostly silica
The same reason rocks are so stable and organic creatures decompose. Breaking the bonds of Silicon based “food” wouybe much more energy consuming than the very “happy to change bonds” carbon
Food for thought! Thank you
so kinda like "sintered" quartz crystals
Does vein quartz transmit light the same?
Thanks for the excellent presentations and the clarity of the descriptions of the differences between quartz and quartzites, (no punn intended 😊).
This is great, do you mind if I share ?
Thank you 🙏 🧚🏽♀️
Nice video. Thank you.
How to differentiate between agate, sapphire, quartz, raw stones
❤️❤️❤️💎💎
00:06:40 that's all over my area all pink though. we are also at the bedrock level which isn't very common with geography worldwide.
🤘🤘🤘
00:10:00 quartzite - you don't have any samples of pink sioux quartzite, visit sioux falls, south dakota. look up what I'm talking about :) please let me know your thoughts!
How did the Pink Sioux Quartzite get formed - it's a single rock 30 miles wide 60 miles long and up to 1 to 3 miles thick in southeast south dakota, minnesota for the most part. - formed by the ancient inland sea? or the edge of it depositing quartz silica and glaciers from the last ice age crushed and compressed it to form it? are there other minerals that accumulated around this huge formation on the north canada facing side from glacial movement above it? Answer - no one knows - but I live in Sioux Falls, the pinkest city in the country in south dakota - every old building is made of pink sioux quartzite - our roads use it - they used to be all pink sioux quartzite cobblestone - very very very hard rock and heat does nothing to it. It's why this area was first settled by people. It's not explored at all. only 2 studies I've ever found are crazy old and they don't go into anything very much in detail.
I just found pink quartzite (all rose quartz grains from opaque to clear) from a shallow glacial lake deposit with calcium carbonate on top side of some from that Lake, also the purple reformed back to crystals in some cases and is said to originate in Wisconsin as well as possible deposits from North of Manitoulin Island vein with pink k-spar and solid white quartzite as well as reformed clear quartz crystal from sand grains internally flawless from the fusion and some have a few sand grain fracture dots from incomplete fusion which just adds rainbow colors inside, also regrown rose quartz and pegamatite crystals through normal sandstone and limestone that has been heated, most of the larger quartzite rocks are the shape of limestone pockets and some grew from inside empty shells. Many quartz crystals some fist sized and clear but not all flawless, as the bigger they get the more flaws, even a fist sized rose quartz with pink on the outside from the host rock it was in, maybe k-spar, maybe rose quartz. Every stone is a crystal and some reflect light back like silk all down the side from the top or bottom and most have the shape of the hole it formed in and flat tops with jagged edge and the larger crystals are on the tops.