Quartz Cutting
Posted by: 
Na'wal
S 37° 32.263 E 143° 52.221
54H E 753610 N 5841601
Quartz is often found in veins that cut through rocks.
Waymark Code: WMNRTR
Location: Victoria, Australia
Date Posted: 04/27/2015
Views: 15
Quartz is often found in veins that cut through rocks. Although the term "vein" suggests this, the veins of quartz and other minerals are usually not thin tubes, but rather thin sheets. The veins can form under various conditions, and depending on these conditions, may or may not bear quartz crystals in them.
Even though certain types of quartz veins do never bear any quartz crystals, it sometimes makes sense to follow large quartz veins to look for crystal-bearing fissures: Should a rock that contains old large quartz veins have been folded later due to tectonic forces, the quartz veins represented a disturbance (a discontinuity in the otherwise homogeneous mechanical properties), and alpine-type fissures are likely to open up between the quartz and the host rock.
The simplest type of a quartz vein is the filling of an already present crack in rocks. The crack might form during folding of the rock in mountain-building processes, by shattering during tectonic events, by a decrease in pressure during the uplift of a rock, or because a rock cools down and shrinks. Hot brines that percolate the rocks and originate at greater depths with higher temperatures will precipitate the minerals they carry with them in cracks at lower temperatures and pressures. This process may continue until the crack is completely filled or may stop before, leaving "pockets" in the vein that are sometimes outlined by crystals. Hot brines that enter a crack in the rock from some distant hot source like a granite pluton first cool and precipitate most of their load rather quickly. The result is milky quartz, either massive or made of interlocked milky quartz crystals. Later, when the crystal growth slows down, the crystals may get less milky or even clear. In the majority quartz veins, most of the quartz is precipitated as massive, milky quartz, and well-formed crystals, if found at all, are only a small portion of the vein filling.
Waymark is confirmed to be publicly accessible: yes
Parking Coordinates: N 37° 32.267 W 143° 52.280
Access fee (In local currency): .00
Requires a high clearance vehicle to visit.: no
Requires 4x4 vehicle to visit.: no
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