What do Ya'll think of this....

[Southern Yankee]

I found this quartz laying in a road bed that a company I was working for was building. There was one about 1/4 the size of this one that a friend kept. I've been back several times but have not found anything besides a few shattered quartz crystals.

[DigginThePast]

I think thats awesome! Congrats!

[Eu_citzen]

Even looks like smoky quartz. Beautiful!

[claymation]

That thing is giant ! Is it black ? Looks like smokey quartz as mentioned. A very nice one too !

[Southern Yankee]

It's not really black. It is really smokey though. It weighs about 5lbs. It needs a good cleaning. This is the best one I've ever found.

[Tuberale]

Wow!

[Eu_citzen]

Most of the "black" quartz you see on the market today is irradiated in a lab, not in mother nature.
Often those are completely black.

Natural smoky quartz is mostly various brownish colours to, sometimes, black.
If it is natural it does often not show the same colour trough out the whole crystal.

At 5 LBS that's a NICE crystal! I would be looking for the source of that one!!

[claymation]

Most of the "black" quartz you see on the market today is irradiated in a lab, not in mother nature.
Often those are completely black.

Natural smoky quartz is mostly various brownish colours to, sometimes, black.
If it is natural it does often not show the same colour trough out the whole crystal.

At 5 LBS that's a NICE crystal! I would be looking for the source of that one!!

I'm sorry to get off subject but I got to know, if a quartz is irradiated would the color just be on the surface or is it completely through ?

[Southern Yankee]

Most of the "black" quartz you see on the market today is irradiated in a lab, not in mother nature.
Often those are completely black.

Natural smoky quartz is mostly various brownish colours to, sometimes, black.
If it is natural it does often not show the same colour trough out the whole crystal.

At 5 LBS that's a NICE crystal! I would be looking for the source of that one!!

Yeah, It's not a consistent color throughout the crystal. It looks like it has brownish black smoke traped inside of it. It is almost clear on the point and has some spots that are very dark.

Belive me I've been trying off and on for about 3 years to find the source. Since this came from the roadbed (the road is still just dirt, because the company almost went belly-up) I'm not sure if it was already there or if it came in with some fill dirt.

We did remove about 15-20 tons of boulders from the road while we were cutting it down and a few more when we were digging trench for the water line and storm drains.

Is there anything I should look for in particular?

[Eu_citzen]

Most of the "black" quartz you see on the market today is irradiated in a lab, not in mother nature.
Often those are completely black.

Natural smoky quartz is mostly various brownish colours to, sometimes, black.
If it is natural it does often not show the same colour trough out the whole crystal.

At 5 LBS that's a NICE crystal! I would be looking for the source of that one!!

I'm sorry to get off subject but I got to know, if a quartz is irradiated would the color just be on the surface or is it completely through ?

It is completely trough, the radiation goes into the crystal its self to.

Most of the "black" quartz you see on the market today is irradiated in a lab, not in mother nature.
Often those are completely black.

Natural smoky quartz is mostly various brownish colours to, sometimes, black.
If it is natural it does often not show the same colour trough out the whole crystal.

At 5 LBS that's a NICE crystal! I would be looking for the source of that one!!

Yeah, It's not a consistent color throughout the crystal. It looks like it has brownish black smoke traped inside of it. It is almost clear on the point and has some spots that are very dark.

Belive me I've been trying off and on for about 3 years to find the source. Since this came from the roadbed (the road is still just dirt, because the company almost went belly-up) I'm not sure if it was already there or if it came in with some fill dirt.

We did remove about 15-20 tons of boulders from the road while we were cutting it down and a few more when we were digging trench for the water line and storm drains.

Is there anything I should look for in particular?

Look for quartz, it does not have to be in crystal form.
Its a quartz crystal, so there should be quartz close to the source.

[Southern Yankee]

The whole 1/3 mile long road has small pieces of quartz on it. That is the problem. I can't dig up the whole $50,000 road trying to find $50 worth of quartz. That's what I was asking, Is there anything in particular that I need to look for.
Thanks guys for all the helpful advice and great stories....I love this website.

[Eu_citzen]

The whole 1/3 mile long road has small pieces of quartz on it. That is the problem. I can't dig up the whole $50,000 road trying to find $50 worth of quartz. That's what I was asking, Is there anything in particular that I need to look for.
Thanks guys for all the helpful advice and great stories....I love this website.

I was talking about rocks that have quartz veins in them, quartz is usually formed in hydrothermal conditions. (meaning a hot water solution)
So what your looking for is a host rock in which there is quartz veins.

However by the looks of it that crystal hasn't travelled very far. So it should be close by.
Has there been any glacial action in your area? If yes, search in the opposite direction of the ice movement.