CRYSTAL FORMATION

Earth began as a whirling pool of gas, which eventually became a white-hot molten ball. As Earth started to cool down crystals were created and as the Earth formed they have continued to develop. It can be said that crystals are the Earths DNA i.e. a chemical imprint of evolution. They are miniature record keepers, which show how the Earth has developed over millions of years. Crystals therefore have this indelible memory of the immense forces that have shaped the Earth. Their crystalline structure can absorb, focus, conserve and emit energy especially on the electromagnetic waveband. Whether the crystal is large or small it will have exactly the same internal structure and their crystalline formation is constant and unchanging . At the heart of the crystal is the atom and its component parts. The atom is dynamic, consisting of particles rotating around a centre in a constant motion. A crystal may outwardly look placid, however, it is actually a seething molecular mass vibrating at a certain frequency. This is what gives a crystal its energy. Inorganic matter, if free to take that physical state in which it is most stable, always tends to crystallize. Crystalline rock masses have consolidated from aqueous solution or from molten magma.

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The vast majority of igneous rocks belong to this group and the degree of crystallization depends primarily on the conditions under which they solidified. Such rocks as granite, which have cooled very slowly and under great pressures, have completely crystallized, but many lavas were poured out at the surface and cooled very rapidly; in this latter group a small amount of amorphous or glassy matter is frequent. Other crystalline rocks, the evaporites such as rock salt, gypsum and some limestones have been deposited from aqueous solution, mostly owing to evaporation in arid climates. Still another group, the metamorphic rocks which includes the marbles, mica-schists and quartzites; are recrystallized, that is to say, they were at first fragmental rocks, like limestone, shale and sandstone and have never been in a molten condition nor entirely in solution. The high temperature and pressure conditions of metamorphism have acted on them erasing their original structures, and inducing recrystallization in the solid state.