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About
A continuous framework of corner-sharing SiO₄ tetrahedra wound into helices along the c-axis — the handedness of those helices makes quartz optically active and piezoelectric. The most abundant mineral framework in the crust.
Structure
Prototypeα-quartz
Crystal systemtrigonal
Space groupP3_221 (154)
Latticea = 4.9134, b = 4.9134, c = 5.4052 Å
Anglesα 90° · β 90° · γ 120°
Also crystallizes this way
GeO2AlPO4 (berlinite)cristobalite (polymorph)
Sources
- Structure: Crystallography Open Database (COD)
- Lattice parameters: Wyckoff, Crystal Structures — a = 4.913 Å, c = 5.405 Å