Quartzite

Description

A metamorphic rock composed of quartz grains. Quartzite is commonly found throughout the world. It is usually white in color but can be found in other colors as well. Quartzite is a semitransparent stone that resembles marble, although it is harder and it does not effervesce in acid. Quartzite breaks unevenly with a clean angular fracture. It is used for making brick, abrasives, and road rubble. Sedimentary quartzite is generally called siliceous sandstone to distinguish it from the metamorphic stone.

Sioux Quartzite glacial erratic

Synonyms and Related Terms

arenite sandstone; siliceous sandstone; cuarcita (Esp.); quartzite (Fr.); quartzito (Port.); Quarzit (Deut.); kwartsiet (Ned.)

Additional Images

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  Quartzite

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 647

• Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996

• Anne Grimmer, Glossary of Building Stone Terms, A Glossary of Historic Masonry Deterioration Problems and Preservation Treatments, National Park Service, Washington DC, 1984

• Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia, Douglas M. Considine (ed.), Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1976

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998