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Quartz is a silicate mineral—composed of silicon and oxygen—that is in abundance within the Earth’s crust. It can be found naturally as lumps of the just the mineral itself, or it can be present in a number of rocks—with the most common and well-known example being in granite (alongside feldspar and mica). While it is one of the most well-known minerals, this article is dedicated to looking at the different characteristics and properties which quartz has. There are many different aspects and properties to a mineral, from the color to its hardness, to how its layers cleave under stress and more. Quartz can be in many different colors. In its purest form, it is a clear or white color, but different impurities within the atomic lattice can cause the color to change to purple, pink, brown, black, gray, green, orange, yellow, blue, or red. In some cases, the color can be banded or multiple colors depending on the impurity levels. For example, one common form of quartz that has impurities is amethyst, where the presence of iron or other transition metal ions causes the color to turn purple/lilac. Therefore, depending on whether a specimen is pure or not, it’s transparency can range from transparent to opaque.