Difference Between Quartz and Calcite

Quartz vs Calcite

Quartz and calcite have many things in common but they also have many differences between them.

While Calcite is calcium carbonate, Quartz is silicon dioxide. Quartz is also a combination of oxygen and silicon.

First of all, let’s see the difference in their colours. Calcite is colourless, white and with light shades of orange, yellow, blue, red, pink, brown, black, green and gray. On the other hand, quartz comes in white, cloudy, purple, pink, gray, brown and black.

While calcite has a luster that is vitreous to resinous to dull, quartz has a glassy to vitreous luster.

Both calcite and quartz are transparent and translucent. However, cryptocrystalline is translucent to opaque.

Calcite comes in rhombohedron, scalenohedron, hexagonal and pinacoid forms. Most of the calcite minerals are trigonal and pseudo-hexagonal. Quartz is a hexagonal prism and the massive form includes globular, botryoidal and stalactitic.

While the cleavage is perfect in three directions in the case of Calcite, the cleavage in quartz is weak in the three directions.

In hardness , there are differences between the two. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on Moh’s scale whereas Calcite Marble comes with a hardness of 3 on the scale. In refractive indices, Calcite has a refractive index of 1.49 and 1.66. On the contrary, Quartz has a refractive index of 1.55.

Calcite gets its name from the Greek “chalix”. The origin of quartz is uncertain. However, it is said that Quartz was derived from the German ‘quar’.

Summary

1. While Calcite is calcium carbonate, Quartz is silicon dioxide.

2. While calcite has a luster that is vitreous to resinous to dull, quartz has a glassy to vitreous luster.

3. Both calcite and quartz are transparent and translucent. However, cryptocrystalline is translucent to opaque.

4. Quartz has a hardness of 7 on Moh’s scale whereas Calcite Marble comes with a hardness of 3 on the scale.

5. Calcite has a refractive index of 1.49 and 1.66. On the contrary, Quartz has a refractive index of 1.55.

6. While the cleavage is perfect in three directions in the case of Calcite, the cleavage in quartz is weak in the three directions.

7. While calcite has a luster that is vitreous to resinous to dull, quartz has a glassy to vitreous luster.

8. Calcite comes in colourless, white and with light shades of orange, yellow, blue, red, pink, brown, black, green and gray. On the other hand, quartz comes in white, cloudy, purple, pink, gray, brown and black.

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