Haha - interesting pictures. It looks like they really do glow, but I
doubt it's from anything the crystal element is doing - it and the mount
structure may just serve as the electrodes for a gas discharge lamp. If
the envelope is filled with some relatively "inert" gas or mixture,
instead of vacuum, then you have a discharge lamp. Using say, dry
nitrogen or krypton (common fillers, I think), you may get the bluish
color at some conditions. If you excite it with high enough AC voltage
at limited current, it will strike and run.
I doubt that the crystal would be mechanically damaged unless you could
somehow apply the excitation at "exactly" the resonant frequency, but
I'd think it would become no good as a normal crystal anymore, since
various things could deposit onto or depart from the surface, affecting
the resonance and Q. If the voltage is high enough that it arcs over and
ruins the connections, that's another story. The voltage will at least
be limited by the gas. If the current is allowed to get too high, then
the whole thing will be shot.
Ed
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