Gems and Minerals Booklet

A collection of gems and minerals, their uses, and other interesting information about them.

Esther Filbrun20 March 2012

Personal Information

NOTE: Almost all photos are from wikipedia.org, with the exception of the gem on the front cover. That was from fotosearch.com. All pictures free for use.

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Table of ContentsIntroduction...............................................................................2Chalcedony.................................................................................3Sardonyx/Onyx........................................................................5Topaz........................................................................................6Carbuncle...................................................................................7Amber......................................................................................10Amethyst..................................................................................12Beryl........................................................................................14Sardius (Ruby).......................................................................15Emerald...................................................................................16Sapphire...................................................................................17Diamond..................................................................................18Quartz.....................................................................................20Agate.......................................................................................22Jasper......................................................................................23Gold.........................................................................................25Works Cited............................................................................28

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Introduction

Gems and minerals are fascinating things. From their complex structures to their unique size, they shout a creator that made them. Mixtures of colours, complex compounds of unique, personal, unimaginable substances, and individual coding make the gem that you see a truly one-of-a-kind character.

All gems and minerals (except for Quartz) in this small study are mentioned somewhere in the Bible. A few of the many references are below:

• CHALCEDONY—Revelation 21:19• SARDONYX/ONYX—Revelation 21:20, Genesis 2:12.• TOPAZ—Exodus 28:17, Exodus 39:10, Job 28:19.• CARBUNCLE—Exodus 28:17, Exodus 39:10, Isaiah 54:12.• AMBER—Ezekiel 1:4, Ezekiel 1:27, Ezekiel 8:2. • AMETHYST—Exodus 28:19, Exodus 39:12, Revelation 21:20. • BERYL—Exodus 28:20, Song of Solomon 5:14, Daniel 10:6,

Revelation 21:20.• SARDIUS (RUBY)—Exodus 28:17, Revelation 21:20.• EMERALD—Exodus 28:18, Revelation 4:3, Revelation 21:19.• SAPPHIRE—Exodus 24:10, Job 28:6, Job 28:16, Song of

Solomon 5:14, Isaiah 54:11, Lamentations 4:7, Ezekiel 28:13.• DIAMOND—Exodus 28:18, Jeremiah 17:1, Ezekiel 28:13.• AGATE—Exodus 28:19, Isaiah 54:12, Ezekiel 27:16.• JASPER—Exodus 39:13, Ezekiel 28:13, Revelation 4:3,

Revelation 21:11, Revelation 21:18.• GOLD —Exodus 39:13, Acts 3:6, Revelation 21:18.May God bless (and expand) your understanding of a few of His

wonderful gems and minerals through this little book!From the author,

Esther Rose Filbrun

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Personal InformationPersonal Information

Chalcedony

Chalcedony is a micro-crystal (or cryptocrystalline) form of silica, and made of minute ingrowths of quartz and moganite. Chalcedony has a waxy luster, and can be semitransparent or translucent. It has a wide range of colours, and some of the most commonly seen are as follows—white to grey, greyish-blue or a shade of brown ranging from very pale to almost black.

Chalcedonies occur in a wide range of varieties. Some of the more common ones include—

1. Agates have multi-coloured curves or angular banding. There are many kinds of agate, all different colours, shapes, and sizes.

2. Adventurine is a form of chalcedony, you can easily decide that because of it's translucency and the presence of mineral inclusions. It usually comes in silvery green, blue, orange, or brown.

3. Carnelian is a clear-to-translucent reddish-brown kind of chalcedony. It's tone can vary from very pale orange to an almost-black colour. (Sard is a similar stone to carnelian, but it is brown instead of red).

4. Chrysoprase (also spelled chrysophrase) is a green variety of chalcedony. It is coloured by nickel oxide.

5. Heliotrope (also called “bloodstone”) is a green variety of chalcedony, and has red inclusions of iron oxide. The inclusions resemble blood, giving the stone this name. In a similar variety, the

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Chalcedony geode. Photo credit: DucanHill (Wikipedia user)

A variety of Chalcedony, the Agate. Photo Credit: Wikipedia user Ra'ike

spots are yellow instead of red, and is known as “plasma”. 6. Moss agate has green finger-like inclusions, making it look

like moss or blue cheese. It is not a true agate, because it does not have bands.

7. Mtorolite is a green variety of chalcedony, and is coloured by chromium (Cr). It is also known as “chrome chalcedony”, and is mostly found in Zimbabwe.

8. Onyx is a form of agate with black and white bands. Similarly, agates with brown, orange, red, and white banding is called sardonyx.

Chalcedony was used in ancient times for different things. In the Palace of Knossos (in Minoan Crete), chalcedony seals were found. People living along Central Asian trade routes used various forms of chalcedony to make jewellery, ring bezels, and beads strikingly similar to Greek and Roman ones. The High Priest had at least 3 varieties of chalcedony on his breastplate—jasper, chrysoprase, and sardonyx.

Chalcedony is found all over the world. In every one of the 50 US states, one form or another has been found. Some states produce better forms of chalcedony than others, but all have uniqueness. For example, two of the places where chalcedony is found is the Great Lakes area—Lake Superior agate, and flint from Flint Ridge, Ohio. Other places include England, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Madgascagar, China, Australia, Iceland, Russia, Turkey, Czech Republic, and India.

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Moss agate

A type of Calcedony, the Onyx.

Photo Credit: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com

Sardonyx/Onyx

Onyxes, gems used on the high priest's breastplate in Exodus, are very beautiful jewels. They are striped jewels, their bands come in colours from white to almost any other colour (there are a few colours you can't find, such as purple or blue), but you can find most colours. Sardonyx are a reddish type of Onyx.

Sardonyx are found in many different places around the world, including Uruguay, India, Brazil, Madagascar, China, Czech Republic, Portugal, and USA. Most sardonyx are found in India. Since sardonyx are found around the world, their price isn't in the “too high” level. Many people can afford to buy these beautiful stones.

Sardonyx have very unique bands. Sometimes, the bands resemble a tree's rings. Other times, they remind you of the waves on the ocean. No two stones have been found to be exactly the same. The lines are irregular, and meander all over the place – much like the layers of the earth. The stones are quite fun to compare.Sardonyx (and onyx) was often used in Ancient

Egyptian times for every-day household use. It was carved to be used as bowls and other pottery things. The Cretians (who lived on the island of Crete) used it in their carvings. Onyx was also known to the Romans and Greeks. The ancient writer Pliny mentioned onyx in his writings, and described different artificial techniques in his book, the Naturalis Historia. Many times (then and now), the Onyx and Sardonyx were used to make beads and other jewellery.

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A slice of sardonyx, a type of agate.

Black onyx stones.

Topaz

Topaz, a beautiful clear gem, is the second stone on the high priest's breastplate. Topaz comes in many, many colours. You can find it red, yellow, light grey, blue-brown, or reddish-orange naturally. They can also be turned white, pale green, blue, gold, pink, reddish-yellow, or transparent. When you look at topaz, you can “see” right through it. Topaz is also quite hard. If you rubbed a chunk against glass, you would scratch the glass.

Topaz are found all around the world. To name a few, you can find it in the US, Russia, Pakistan, Australia, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. The blue topaz (a very rare type of natural topaz) is Texas' gemstone. Often, topaz is found around lava flows. Brazilian topaz (which is generally clear in colour) can be found up to the size of boulders, often weighing up to several hundred pounds.

Topaz are generally used as gemstones. Often people use it for jewellery, and while it is not such a common gemstone, it is still available. The most valuable topaz is a orange-yellow colour.Topaz are mined above and below ground. Most of the time, it is mined using surface mining,

or open pit mining. There are some cases where there is underground mining, though. Many times, the companies decide whether to do open pit mining or underground mining depending on how deep it is underground.

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A red topaz

Different kinds of topaz.

Carbuncle

Introduction: The name “carbuncle” is given to any red cut gemstone. According to Wikipedia.org, what the Bible was meaning when it listed the “carbuncle” as on Aaron, the High Priest's breastplate, was a dark red garnet. I will use this assumption, and tell you a little about the garnet today.

——————————Garnets can be many different colours. Virtually all the colours

found in the rainbow can be found (in one form or another) in a garnet. A few of the colours they can show are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, brown, black, pink and colourless. The rarest colour is blue, and was first found in the 1800's in Madagascar. Other places where they can be found include the USA, Turkey, and Russia.

There are different types of garnets, all divided into groups by their chemical make-up. The six most common kinds are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular, uvarovite and andradite. Here are what each mean:

1. Pyrope. Pyropes are the only member of the garnet family to always have red in them. Their name comes from the Roman

words meaning “fire” and “eye”. They are made up of chemical elements calcium (Ca.), chromium (Cr., “a blue-white metallic element found in nature only in combination and used especially in alloys and in chrome plating1”), iron (Fe.), and manganese (Mn. “a grayish-white usually hard and brittle metallic element that resembles iron but is not magnetic2”).

1 http://wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Student&va=Chromium 2 http://mw1.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manganese

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A clump of garnet crystals.

A garnet showing the deep redness they can

reach.

2. Almandine. Almandines are a red inclining to purple garnets. They are often cut with a convex (or rounded like the outside of a ball) face, or “en cabochon”. When cut “en cabochon”, they are called “carbuncles”. Almadine garnets are often found in gem-gravels of Sri Lanka.

3. Spessartine. Spessartine is made up of silicate (chemical salt made of metal combined with silicon and oxygen), manganese, and aluminium. This red or orange garnet is found in Australia, Myanmar, India, Afghanistan, Israel, Madagascar, Tanzania and the United States.

4. Grossular. Grossular garnets are made up of a calcium-aluminium mineral compound. They can vary in colour from green to cinnamon to red and yellow. They can be found in Siberia, Kenya, and Tanzania.

5. Uvarovite. Uvarovite garnets are made up of chromium, with a formula: Ca3Cr2(SiO4)3. I'm not even going to try to explain the last bit, but the first two things are calcium and chromium. The last bit is silicon tetraoxide, whatever that is! Uvarovite is the rarest in comparison to the other kinds of garnet in the group, and is only green in colour. They are found with chromium ore in Spain, Russia, Canada, Finland, Norway, and South Africa.

6. Andradite. Andradite comes in three main different colours – black, vivid green, and yellow green. The vivid green garnet in this group is one of the rarest and most valuable gems in the world. They are found in Italy, the Ural Mountains of Russia, Arizona and California and in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in Ukraine.

Garnets are very pretty gems, and are usually used in jewellery.

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Spessartine (the orange crystals on the top) Garnet from Fujian

Province, China

Uvarovite garnet

However, there are other uses. A common use is garnet sand. Garnet sand is a good abrasive, so it is often used in sand blasting. Garnet paper is often used by furniture makers for finishing wood. Scientists are still experimenting, and finding other uses for this amazing rock God has created.

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Amber

Amber, a gem, fossilized tree resin, is found about everywhere in the world. There are many types of amber, varying from shades of blue to dark orange, black, white, and red. Often amber is found with insects in it, including ants, spiders, flies, mosquitoes, etc.

Amber is often found in coal seams, and mined, both underground and out in the open. When amber is mined, it often has a crust that has to be taken off before the true beauty is discovered. To take the crust off, many times the amber is put in a turning barrel containing water and sand. Sometimes, amber is washed up on beaches, and often the crust is already washed off with the power of the waves rubbing it against the sea floor. Amber does not float, so most of the time when trying to get amber from the sea, people dive or fish for it.

After amber has been cleaned, it can be turned into many different products. For example, the Vienna amber factories use pale amber to make pipes. The amber is turned on a lathe and polished, then given its final colour by rubbing it with flannel. Other kinds of amber are treated differently. If two pieces of amber need to be fused together, often linseed oil will be rubbed on the sides to be fused. Then they are heated, and pressed together while still hot. Many things can be made from this, and often amber is turned into jewellery or smoking utensils.

Amber is classed in many different categories, according to what it has in it, how much, and colour. Amber is made up of so many different things. There are five different classes that the amber is classified under:

• Class I. Most kinds of amber are under this category. They

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Spider in amber.

contain many different kinds of acids.• Class II. These ambers are made from resins with a

hydrogen/carbon base.• Class III. These ambers are much like stiff plastic, or

polystyrenes.• Class IV. These ambers are made of aromatic resins, and don't

have starches in them.•Class V. These ambers are produced by a pine or pine relative.Amber is a very pretty gem, and it is used in many different ways. You may have seen some amber on a necklace before. They are very popular in that form! As you have seen before, amber can be used in many ways. Next time you walk on the seashore, look and see if you can find a piece on the beach! You might just be lucky!

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Amber with lots of inclusions.

Amethyst

Amethysts are gems of the highest quality. Their beautiful colour, the sparkling light they reflect, and their many-sidedness all combine to make a stunning jewel. Amethysts come in all shapes and sizes, but most often, they come in the shape of a 6-sided prism, ending in 6-side pyramids. Their colour varies from light violet to dark purple. Sometimes, there are hints of red and blue in them, too. Often, there are white streaks in it also. Amethysts are a variety of quartz, and the purple qualities in it are caused by iron impurities. Often, the colours are laid out in stripes of varying colour.

Amethysts can be found in different locations around the world. A few of the places are; South America, United States, Russia, South Korea, and one of the biggest places on the globe is in Zambia, in southern Africa. Some of the highest quality is found in Russia, though.Until the 18th century, amethyst was included in the cardinal (most valuable) gemstones (diamond, sapphire, ruby, and emerald are in the cardinal) but after a vein was found in Brazil, the value dropped.

Some of the most prized amethysts have red streaks in them, but this is very rare.

Amethysts are used in many, many ways. Its most common use is for rings and necklaces. The highest quality costs a couple hundred dollars. Often, however, most of the stuff you can buy cheaply are poor quality. The colour is not good, there is poor clarity, and they are polished rather than cut. You can buy this kind for ten dollars or less.

Amethysts are very pretty jewels. They are mined, but can occasionally be found in caves. Sometimes, they form inside volcanic

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Amethyst from Magaliesburg, South Africa.

Photo Credit: JJ Harrison (http://www.noodlesnacks.com/)

rocks. Sometimes, they form in hollow spaces of rock. They are mined externally and internally, depending on where they are. At some places, you can start digging and tada! You have an amethyst treasure!

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An amethyst geode that formed when large crystals grew in open spaces inside the rock.

Beryl

Beryl, a mineral, comes in several colours, shapes and sizes. Its crystals range in size from small up to a couple metres long. Pure beryl has no colour, but this is very unusual, and most of the time there are impurities in it that cause the colour. Beryl varies in colour, but mostly it is red, white, blue, green, and yellow. Beryl is made of many different things, but silicate (chemical salt made of metal combined with silicon and oxygen) is one of the most prominent. Silicate is also used in many other ways. About 90% of the earth's crust is made of rocks made of silicate minerals.

Beryl is mined in quite a few places around the world, but a few of the top mining places are the US, Africa, and South America. The only place where red beryl can be found is in Utah. Golden beryls are found in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Madagascar, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka. Pink beryl (or morganite) can be found in Brazil, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, US, Afghanistan, China, Madagascar, and Namibia. Aquamarines (bluish-green beryl) can be found in central Colorado, Wyoming, and Sri Lanka.

Beryl has a very rare element in it called “beryllium”. Only about 100 minerals have this in it. Because beryl has this in it, scientists have used it for making wire, and even used it on space shuttles. Beryl has high tensile (can be stretched a lot) strength, and is hard and light. This makes it very good for things that need light, strong material. Beryl is also used in jewellery, as it is a precious gemstone.

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Emerald beryl

Golden beryl Photo Credit: work by

wikipedia.org user Rama

Sardius (Ruby)

The ruby is a pink to dark red coloured gem. Its name comes from the word ruber, the Latin word for red. The most valuable ruby has a dark red colour. Prices of a ruby differ on what colour the stone is, and then how clear the stone is. Clear stones are at a premium price, but stones that don't contain rutile (needle-like crystals in a stone) are most likely to have been treated. Carat weight and the way the stones are cut also determine what the price will be.

Rubies are one of the hardest natural stones on the planet – only moissanite and diamond are harder. Diamond hardness is 10.0 on Mohs' scale, and miossanite falls in between rubies and diamonds somewhere. They have a melting point of 2,044°C.!

Rubies can be found all over the world. One of the biggest mining places is in Myanmar (Burma). Other places include the US, Thiland, Cambodia, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. After the second world war (WWII), new ruby deposits were discovered in Tanzania, Madagascar, Vietnam, Nepal, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. Quite recently, large ruby deposits were found in Greenland under a shrinking ice shelf. In 2002, rubies were found in Waseges River area in Kenya.

Rubies are mostly used to make jewellery, but there are a few exceptions. Since rubies are so hard, they are sometimes used to make emery boards for fingernails. Other times, rubies are used in making solid-state lasers, but they usually use synthetic rubies for this to avoid the natural flaws in natural rubies.

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Ruby from Winza, Tanzania.

Photo Credit: work by Wikipedia user StrangerThanKindness

Natural cut ruby with inclusions.

Photo Credit: Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com

Emerald

The emerald is a type of beryl. It's green – varying from blue-green to yellow-green! Emeralds are naturally fairly hard, (they are rated seven-and-a-half to eight on Mohs' scale) but aren't very strong. Emeralds are highly included (included means “material that is trapped inside a mineral during its formation”), so their resistance to breakage is poor.

Unlike diamonds, when specialists magnify the stone 10x to determine the quality, emeralds are graded by eye. If there are no visible inclusions, the stone is considered “flawless”. Stones that don't have fissures (or cracks) breaking the surface are very rare, and most of the time the emeralds are treated with oil to give it a better overall appearance. “Clean” stones with a vivid green colour and no more than 15% of other colours (e.g. blue or yellow), who have a medium to dark tone cost the most.

Emeralds were mined by the ancient Egyptians in Egypt (ever wonder where the Israelites got their emeralds from for Aaron's breastplate? They may have dug them up themselves!), and were also mined in India and Austria. Emeralds are also found in other countries; Australia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Tanzania, United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Emeralds are used for jewelry.

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A dark green emerald on quartz.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia user M.M.

One of the biggest emeralds in the

world, the Gachala Emerald, which is 858 carats or 172 grams. It

currently resides in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: Flicker

user thisisbossi

Sapphire

Sapphires are a brilliant blue gem (although there are different colours, too). God loves diversity, doesn't He? Sapphires can come in just about all colours, except for red – the red has a special name – a ruby. Sapphires are made mostly of a mineral called corundum (corundum is a crystal form of aluminium oxide [the oxide of aluminium]). Small amounts of other elements – iron, titanium, and chromium can make the corundum have other colours like yellow, purple, pink, or greenish colour.

Sapphires are mined in many different places, but some of the most famous were found in Sri Lanka. The top three famous are the Logan sapphire (at the Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institute), the Star of India, and the Star of Bombay. The Logan sapphire is a flawless specimen, and the second largest blue sapphire known. It

weighs 422.99 carats, or 84.6 grams. Other places where the sapphires are mined include Burma, Madagascar, Australia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Kenya, and China.Sapphires are used in different ways. Since they are gems, they are used as jewellery. They are used quite frequently as watch crystals, because they are quite hard. Another benefit of them being used as watch crystals is that if they get scratched, gentle

polishing can take off the blemish whereas other crystal material have to be replaced when they get scratched. Sometimes, they are even used as watch face covers!

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The Logan sapphire. Photo Credit: Chip Clark,

Smithsonian staff

The Star of Bombay.

Diamond

The name Diamond comes from a Greek word adámas, meaning “unbreakable,” “proper,” or “unalterable”. And that's exactly what diamonds are—unbreakable, unalterable, hard rocks. Diamonds mostly have no colour, but diamonds of different colours have been found. One of the most famous diamonds, the Hope Diamond, is blue due to trace amounts of boron in the diamond.

Only about 20% of the diamonds mined have a clarity rating high enough for use as jewellery. The other 80% are regulated to industrial use. A lot of the time, the diamonds have small defects. If the piece is to be used for jewellery, often the best side of the diamond is chosen, and the jewellers try to cover up the not-so-nice spots (scratches, internal malformations, etc.) with the mounting metal.

Diamonds develop in the Earth's mantel under great pressure. They can be found between 140 and

190 km deep, but are even found at even 300 km occasionally. Diamonds need high temperatures to form. The correct temperature and pressure are only found under stable and thick parts of continental plates.

Often, diamonds are found around volcanoes. The huge up thrust of magma created in a volcano carries everything from the bottom to the top, so diamonds are often found in places like these.

Diamonds are found all over the world. Around forty-nine percent of diamonds are found in Central and Southern Africa. Diamonds from these places are sometimes called “blood diamonds”, because they where used to fund wars between nations and tribes. Diamonds are

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Diamond in a ring.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia user

Saperaud

Rough diamond in a rock

found other places, though. Canada, India, Russia, Brazil, US, and Australia are some of the many places.

Diamonds are used in many different ways. One ton out of every five tons of diamonds mined are used for jewellery. The rest of the diamonds are used in industry. Synthetic diamonds are often used for drill bits and saws. Diamonds are used when precision is necessary, for example, they are used for fine engraving. Since diamonds are so hard, this makes it ideal for the job. Since diamonds can be used a lot, they are valuable.

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Cut diamonds. Photo Credit: HenryLi ,Wikipedia.org

user

Quartz

Quartz is the second most plentiful mineral in the world next to feldspar. Quartz is mostly clear coloured, but when impurities occur, it can show colours ranging through purple, pink, red, yellow, black, grey, and brown (and of course, there are other colours, too).

Quartz is a fairly hard mineral, 7.0 on Moh's scale. Quartz sand is used often in glass making and abrasives because it is so hard. As geology.com says, “High quality quartz crystals are single-crystal silica with optical or electronic properties that make them useful for specialty purposes. USGS estimates that about ten billion quartz crystals are used every year. Electronics grade crystals can be used in filters, frequency controls, timers, electronic circuits that become important components in cell phones, watches, clocks, games, television receivers, computers, navigational instruments and other products. Optical-grade crystals can be used as lenses and windows in lasers and other specialized devices. Although some natural quartz crystals are used in these applications, most of these special crystals are now manufactured.”

One kind of quartz, tripoli, is used as follows: “Tripoli is crystalline silica of an extremely fine grain size (less than ten micrometers). Commercial tripoli is a nearly pure silica material that is used for a variety of mild abrasive purposes which include: soaps, toothpastes, metal polishing compounds, jewelry polishing compounds and buffing compounds. Tripoli is also used in brake friction products, fillers in enamel, caulking compounds, plastic, paint, rubber and refractories.” (geology.com)

Quartz is used in mining. Because it is so durable, often it is used in petroleum mining. “Quartz sand has a high resistance to being

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Quartz from Tibet. Photo Credit: JJ

Harrison, noodlesnacks.com

crushed. In the petroleum industry sandy slurries are forced down oil and gas wells under very high pressures. This high pressure fractures the reservoir rocks and the sandy slurry injects into the fractures. The durable sand grains hold the fractures open after the pressure is released. These open fractures facilitate the flow of natural gas into the well bore.” (geology.com)

Quartz is found in many places around the world, since the amount is abundant. “Extraordinarily common. Fine specimens from many places in the Alps of Switzerland and Austria. At Carrara, Tuscany, Italy. From Bourg d'Oisans, Iseµre, France. At Mursinka, Ural Mountains, in the Dodo mine, about 100 km west-northwest of Saranpaul, Subpolar Ural Mountains, and elsewhere in Russia. From

Sakangyi, Katha district, Myanmar (Burma). Large twins from Yamanashi Prefecture and many other places in Japan. At Tamboholehehibe and elsewhere in Madagascar. From Brazil, in large amounts from many localities in Rio Grande do Sul, Minas Gerais, Goiás, and Bahia. Around Artigas, Uruguay. At Thunder Bay, Lake Superior,

Ontario, Canada. In the USA, from Mt. Ida to Hot Springs, Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas; at Middleville, Herkimer Co., New York; in North Carolina, especially in Alexander and Lincoln Cos. From the Pala and Mesa Grande districts, San Diego Co., California; the El Capitan Mountains, Lincoln Co., New Mexico; the Crystal Park area, Beaverhead Co., and Little Pipestone Creek, Jeferson Co., Montana; and in the Pikes Peak area, El Paso Co., Colorado. From Mexico, in Veracruz and Guerrero.1”

1 Quote from: http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/quartz.pdf

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Quartz showing transparency. Photo Credit: Eurico Zimbres

Agate

Agates are a microcrystalline (microcrystalline means that some of the crystals can only be seen under a microscope) form of silica. They have very fine grain, and generally have bright colours.

The stones were given their name by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and naturalist, when he found it along the bank of the river Achates.

Agates were used in ancient times for hard-stone carving. Hard-stone carved things have been found all over the ancient world. One of the places it was found is Knossos, Crete.

Agates are often found in clumps in volcanic rocks and ancient lava. They form when gas bubbles trapped in solidifying lava are filled with silica and alkali-bearing waters, which thicken into a gel. The alkali attacks the iron in the surrounding rock and lava, and bands of iron hydroxide are made in the gel. The gel crystallizes, and leaves the bands intact. This makes the many bands we see in jewellery today.

There are many different types of agates. The Mexican Agate, showing only one “eye”, is called a cyclops agate. Turritella agate is formed from fossilized shells. Coral, petrified wood, and other 'organic' materials can also become agatized. Greek agate is a name given to light-coloured agates found in Sicily and other ancient world places. Agates can be found around the world. One of the

most famous places is Brazil, where very valuable agate is found. Western United States, Mexico, Germany, Italy, China, India, and Africa are some of the many other places they can be found.

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Agatized coral. Photo Credit: Megan Prusynski

Turritella agate.

Jasper

Jasper is a form of calcedony, which is made up of fine ingrowths of quartz and moganite (basically silicon dioxide, SiO2). Jasper is opaque, and is an impure variety of silica. The colours of jasper vary through red, yellow, brown, and green, and (very rarely) blue. Jasper can be highly polished, and has been used over the years as vases, seals, and at one time even used for snuff boxes! The colours can come in stripes or bands, and that kind is called (according to the stripes or bands) striped or banded jasper.

Jasper was used in the ancient world quite a bit. In Exodus 28, it was on the high priest's breastplate. It symbolized the tribe of Naphtali (or Benjamin, it depends on the source). Green jasper was used in Mehrgarh (“on the 'Kachi plain' of Balochistan, Pakistan”) to make bow drills. On Minoan Crete, jasper was carved to make seals.

Jasper is found widely in the United States, including California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Washington. Other places include Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Kazakhstan,

Madagascar, Russia, and Uruguay.Jasper is widely known, because it comes in so many different forms. Some of the more famous include: 1. Picture jasper. The lines and waves in this jasper resemble a landscape. Hence, it's name.2. Ocean jasper. Rings in the stone remind you of sea plants and animals. They look a little like sea creatures you can find about anywhere

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Polished jasper pebble, one inch (2.5 cm) long.

Landscape Jasper. Photo Credit: Fastily,

Wikipedia.org user

in the sea.3. Leopard skin jasper. This stone has

lines and rings that remind you of a leopard or cheetah's skin.

4. Rain forest jasper. This dark-green stone looks like a real rain forest, and you can just about 'see' the trees in it!

INTERESTING FACTS:1. Jasper has a hardness of 6.5-7 on Mohs's scale.2. Jasper is the state rock of Massachusetts, USA.3. “The name bloodstone, as it indicates, goes back to ancient

Christianity, believing that Jesus Christ's blood dripped from the cross onto a dark green stone that lay beneath it.” —gemselect.com

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Ocean Jasper

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol “Au” (its Latin name is “aurum”, which means, “gold”, or “shining dawn”. The most precious metal in the world—it doesn't rust, gold can be dissolved only by several acids (aqua regia, alkaline solutions of cyanide, and mercury). Nitric acid (which dissolves silver and base metals) makes no difference to gold.

Gold is found all around the world. As of 2009, 165,000 (metric) tonnes of gold has been mined in the world's history (at least, as far as experts can figure). Some of the many places it has been found include USA, Russia, New Zealand, Japan, Australia, South Africa (LOTS of gold is mined here), China, Peru, Chile, Argentina, and many other places. In 1970, South Africa produced 79% of the world's supply of gold (about 1,480 tonnes). In 2008, they produced 2,260 tonnes. In 2007, China (with 276 tonnes of gold) bested South Africa in gold production. South Africa had been the highest producer in the world since 1905.

Gold is used in many places of the world for many, many things. Most money made today is based upon the amount of gold a certain country has to back their dollar (or whatever kind of currency they have). Gold is used quite a bit in jewellery. Since it is so precious, people like to invest in it for security's sake. Gold can be used a lot in industrial ways. It can be cut into a thread, and used in clothing, it can be used on very expensive CD's as the reflective layer, it can be used in heat dissipation in automobiles...if I mentioned everything gold could do, it would be an endless list.

THE HISTORY OF GOLD:Gold has been used in many ways ever since man first set eyes

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The world's largest gold bar has a mass of 250 kg. Toi

museum, Japan. Photo Credit:

PHGCOM Wikipedia user

on it. Egyptian hieroglyphics from just after the flood describe gold, “which king Tushratta of the Mitanni claimed was 'more plentiful than dirt' in Egypt” (quote from wikipedia.org). Egypt and Nubia were some of the major gold-producing areas in the ancient world. One of the oldest maps in the world, the “Turin Papayrus Map” shows a gold-mining area in Nubia. There were also large mines across the Red Sea in (what is now) Saudi Arabia. The legend of the “golden fleece” in Greek mythology may refer to the use of sheep's fleeces to trap gold dust in placer deposits in the ancient world.

Other famous places in the ancient world include the kingdom of Ghana. “The rulers of Ghana were well aware of the need to uphold the value of their chief source of wealth. To do this, they took a portion of the gold supply out of circulation by issuing an order that only the King of Ghana could possess gold in nugget form. Everyone else simply had to get along with gold dust. 'Without this precaution,' commented El-Bekri [an ancient historian] approvingly, 'gold would become so plentiful (in Ghana) that it would practically lose its value.'” (quote from A Glorious Age in Africa)

One famous person in the ancient world was Mansa Musa, the king in the kingdom of Mali. He was a very strong Muslim, and took a hajj in 1324 to the holy city of Mecca. This hajj impressed people in his day—and still impresses people today. This was no ordinary hajj, even when he first started planning to take this trip it was full of splendour. Because he was ruler of the richest empire in West Africa (and possibly in the whole world at the time), Mansa Musa could afford to take a luxurious pilgrimage.

To make sure they had enough money to get them to their destination and back, Mansa Musa took 80-100 camel-loads of gold dust with him, each load weighing about 300 pounds. By the time this large caravan got started, some sources say that it consisted of up to 60,000 people! When Mansa Musa's caravan was in Cairo, Egypt on the way back home, he gave away so much gold to court officials and other people that he went broke! To be able to get back home, he had to borrow from leading merchants of Cairo. Another problem

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involved with giving away so much gold was that the Cairo gold market was all but ruined. “A writer in the service of the Egyptian sultan reported that the Cairo gold market had still not fully recovered from Mansa Musa's visit twelve years after Musa's hajj,” A Glorious Age in Africa stated. For years after the pilgrimage, Mansa Musa was remembered as one of the wealthiest people on earth.

INTERESTING AND FUN GOLD FACTS:1. The world's largest gold bar (250 kg) is in the Toi Museum in

Japan.2. A 5mm gold nugget can be hammered into ½ a square meter

of gold foil.3. “Gold produces a deep, intense red colour when used as a

colouring agent in cranberry glass.”—quote from Wikipedia.org4. “Gold can be manufactured so thin that it appears transparent.

It is used in some aircraft cockpit windows for de-icing or anti-icing by passing electricity through it. The heat produced by the resistance of the gold is enough to deter ice from forming.”—quote from Wikipedia.org

5. “The 7th century BC, gold wire was used to install false tooth by Italian dentist. Since the early 16th century, gold filling was recommended for filling the cavity.”—Beembee.com

6. “Outside the lunar module of the United States “Apollo ” airship was coated with gold foil, with the aim to protect astronauts from radiation. Even now, the helmet worn by astronauts is still coated with a thin gold membrane to protect astronaut’s eyes from intense light.” —Beembee.com

7. “As pure gold is very soft, it is often combined with other things when making jewelry.”—FunFunnyFacts.com

8. “During the [US] Gold Rush in 1849, some people paid as much as $100 for a glass of water!”—FunFunnyFacts.com

9. “The word Gold derives from the Old English word Gelo meaning yellow.”—FunFunnyFacts.com

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Works Cited

http://www.gemselect.com/other-info/sardonyx-gems.php http://www.mindat.org/min-7604.html http://www.jewelinfo4u.com/Sardonyx_Facts_and_Buying_Guide.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onyx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topaz http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00461/topaz.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrope http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almandine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spessartine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grossular http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uvarovite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andradite http://www.webelements.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amethyst http://www.ehow.com/about_5045794_mineral-beryl-used.html http://www.ehow.com/facts_5801539_beryl-ore-used-for_.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_are_rubies_used http://www.gemstoneeducation.com/Rubies.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_(mineral) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corundum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphire http://wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Student&va=alumina http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4987779_how-sapphires-used.html

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_(gemstone) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond http://wanttoknowit.com/uses-of-diamonds/ http://library.thinkquest.org/26168/uses.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartz http://geology.com/minerals/quartz.shtml http://rruff.geo.arizona.edu/doclib/hom/quartz.pdf http://www.rps.psu.edu/0109/form.html http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081221182519AAyhtmE http://www.gemstoneeducation.com/Agate.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moganite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedony http://www.hebroots.org/hebrootsarchive/9807/980715_b.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehrgarh http://www.bernardine.com/gemstones/jasper.htm http://www.gemselect.com/gem-info/jasper/jasper-info.php#deposits http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptocrystalline http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalcedony http://thesaurus.com/browse/hue?s=t http://wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?book=Student&va=platy http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/gemstones/sp14-95/chalcedony.html http://www.mindat.org/min-960.html http://astrobix.com/astroblog/post/chalcedony-gemstone-chalcedony-meaning-calcedony.aspx http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold http://www.beembee.com/2010/10-interesting-facts-about-goldhttp://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_facts_about_gold http://www.funfunnyfacts.com/Fun-Gold-Facts.html Chu, Daniel and Skinner, Elliott. A Glorious Age in Africa. Africa World Press, Inc. 2000, pg. 28 and 64-66.

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