How Do Crystals Form?
Natural crystals are formed in many ways, though the overall process is generally the same- a very hot substance slowly cools, creating a solid. Many crystals are formed when molten rock from a volcano cools down very slowly, allowing the atoms to arrange themselves into highly organized, repetitive geometric patterns enclosed with flat outward faces called facets.
When there are ideal conditions and enough space to grow, the crystals will have smooth faces and showcase their perfect shape. In contrast, when many crystals form together, they become a large mass with no faces or crystal shapes. This is how most rocks form, and the term for these shapeless rocks is ‘massive.’ For example, Quartz- one of the most common minerals on the surface of the Earth- is formed by crystallization of molten magma. Quartz occurs in both; as beautiful crystals with smooth geometric faces and in massive form.
Quartz is formed by crystallization of molten magma
Crystals start out very small and ‘grow’ as atoms are added. They can form from water that has a lot of dissolved minerals in it, they can form from melted rock as described earlier, and they can even form from vapor. As a crystal grows in size, the atoms attach more easily to the rough parts than the smooth ones, creating larger smooth planes until the entire crystal is encased in these smooth, flat faces.
The characteristic external shape of a crystal is called it’s habit. A crystal’s habit is determined by the crystal structure as well as the conditions of the environment when the crystal formed. Crystal habits are used to describe the shape that a crystal has formed in, and one mineral can occur in several habits.
For example, Fluorite can be Octahedral, having eight-sided octahedrons, shown on the left above. It can be Cubic, or cube-shaped, shown in the center photo. Fluorite can also be Botryoidal- exhibiting grape-like hemisphereical masses, shown on the right. These are three of Fluorite’s habits. You can easily look at them and determine the habit of these Flourites without any special equipment or tests, which makes it a popular way for rockhounds to describe and classify minerals.
We know that molten rock, or magma, must cool very slowly if it is going to form crystals- so what happens if it cools very quickly- for instance if it reaches the air on the surface? This is when magma becomes lava- and lava cools quickly when it reaches the surface, into a natural glass-like rock called Obsidian. Obsidian can be black, Mahogany, Rainbow, or even have shimmery gold and silver sheen in it, caused by various inclusions in their composition.
Magma becomes lava- and lava cools quickly when it reaches the surface, into Obsidian
These are just a simple few examples of the ways that crystals form, there are many variations and combinations of crystals that form in an endless number of specific ways but I hope by scratching the surface you can see just how amazing and fascinating the Earth's crystal treasures are!