White & Colorless Crystals

What Makes Minerals White & Colorless?

White and colorless minerals are 'pure' - they lack the transition metal impurities that produce color. Clear quartz is pure SiO₂ without iron (which would make it amethyst or citrine). Diamond is pure carbon. Calcite is pure CaCO₃. White minerals like howlite and selenite scatter light from their microcrystalline structure rather than transmitting it. The transparency difference between clear quartz and milky quartz comes from microscopic fluid inclusions that scatter light.