Does anyone know how to find out what the melting point (degrees) of a quartz rock would be?

For example: What would be the rarity of finding a piece of quartz, from sandstone. that has an unburned piece of wood in the center of it.

Thus leading to, What would the melting point be to melt quartz which can consume a piece of wood that has no apparent burn marks???

What could have caused this proccess to happen here on Earth. I Live in Northern New Jersey and cannot find any info of the planet becoming that hot in my geoligical setting.

If anyone knows more I would appreciate the help, because I have that rock!

thanks,

Justmytype

(edit to remove caps from title)

[edit on 25-4-2005 by pantha]

Google comes in handy for questions like this. I found:

Sand (silicon dioxide, or Quartz): 1723 C

So that would be 3133.4 F.

You sure its actually a piece of wood or does it just look like a piece of wood? Got any photos? Sounds interesting.

Perhaps what you are seeing is a piece of petrified wood included into the quartz as it was created. Petrified wood as I understand it is quartz.

Could you post a picture of what you've got, I should then be able to help you out.

It may be possible that a hyrdothermal vein has gone through the rock in which you have found, depositing quartz around the wood. Without a pic it is really hard to say.

I will post a pic as soon as I learn to upload it onto a post. Anyone know any shortcuts??

Oh... you should also check the hardness of the rock to see if it IS quartz. There are things that look like quartz that are precipitates and can form fairly quickly. Flowstone (stalactites and stalagmites) and other cave rocks actually can cover an object within a generation or three. In Cave Without A Name, their railings are covered in flowstone (and the railings have only been in place since 1930, and there's a dead bat that's partly embedded in a stalagmite. It clearly hasn't been there for more than 80 years.

That reminds me!
I have (or had) a photo of something similar.
Some sort of larva, like a grubworm, embedded in
a clear mineral. The mineral was like a small rock, on the outside.
But cracked open, there was this fossil. It was really well preserved.

I'll try my best to find that photo, and post it.

SKibum,

No it's definitely not amber..
Too heavy and hard, no static charge like amber.
Did you know the Greek word for amber, is Electron?

Anyway. That stone, It's almost like a fossliized walnut was
cracked open to reveal an interior filled with a clear mineral.
Weird, I'm trying to find the picture..

Yep,

A geode is the closest analogy. But it was no longer hollow..


[edit on 1-5-2005 by spacedoubt]

They have solid geodes, actually (where the crystals fill up the hollow space.)

Well, you don't really need heat at all. It may not even be quartz. It may an encasement of limestone where the wood has been covered with it in a cave like system where water softens and erodes the limestone and redeposits its as in the stalagmight stalagtite suggestion.

As in the case of many geodes found in this region, any foreign material can become entraped over time and form within the mineral deposit. I have noticed trapped soil and stones inside geodes a few times. I guess wood could be preserved due to the lack of oxygen present to precipitate rot.