Gemstones

Popular for its intense deep violet to blue color, Tanzanite is actually the commercial name given to the mineral Zoisite. This beautiful gem is increasingly being used in fine jewelry across the globe instead of the much-used and hugely popular blue sapphire . Here we take a look at the properties and characteristics that distinguish it from other similar looking stones like iolite and blue sapphire. ....

Million dollar worth diamond jewelry sold by Sotheby auction house during the period Jan 2010, to Dec 2010. ....

Tanzanite Pictures. .

The first clue to a true ruby's identity will obviously be its color. The name ruby is derived from the Latin 'ruber' meaning red. Corundum in its pure form is virtually colorless; the color red is induced due to the presence of impurities in the form of trace elements chromium or iron within the crystal structure of the gemstone. Ruby may range in color from red to purplish- or brownish red and deep pinkish-red. The most desired color for ruby is a deep red tinged with blue known traditionally as 'pigeon's blood' red though such terms are used increasingly rarely nowadays.....

With a name that literally means sea water, the most acceptable color for this stone is a clear transparent sky-blue. Much Aquamarine has a bluish-green color, and the color is caused due to the presence of iron unlike emerald in which chromium is the coloring agent.....

Opal Gallery .

Common identification features of emerald are listed below along with those of its common synthetic stones, imitations and simulants. The information is intended to be a ready reference to give you a fair idea as to the identity of a gemstone on visual examination. Suggestions and queries from readers about the topic are encouraged.....

Imperial State Crown. .

Only 1 percent of the world's total diamond is colored, which makes these gems a rarity and their value priceless. Among all the colors of diamond found on earth red is probably the rarest and therefore most sought after. There is a collection of only thirty-five exquisite pieces of red diamonds across the world. Found by a farmer from Brazil, the Moussaieff Red diamond weighs 5.11 carats and is the largest red rock in the world. ....

World Gemstone Map .

Gallery of Quartz Pictures. .

Sri Lanka very rightly known as the "Jewel Box" in the Indian Ocean is a treasure trove of unending collection of precious gems, and is one of the major hubs of gem mining in the world. The beautiful island in the shape of a pear is also famous for its tea and rubber plantations as well as for gem mines and alluvial gem gravels that have been producing the best quality gems for centuries. ....

The gemstone Tanzanite ranges in blue, violet and lavender shades and is a form of the mineral Zoisite which is a calcium aluminium silicate. The colour of Zoisite ranges from shades of greyish brown to white. In its raw stage Tanzanite is usually found brownish and very rarely, blue, violet or deep brown irregular sized crystals, often with broken ends. ....

The Mererani or the Merelani Hills of Tanzania are the sole Tanzanite hub of the world. The sensationally attractive and new born mineral in the world of gemstones owes its birthplace to Tanzania where it was discovered way back in the 1960's. The Merelani Hill area located just 16 kms south of Kilimanjaro Airport is another 70kms south-east from the district of Arusha, situated at the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Some also have the idea that Tanzanite was discovered in 1967 in the Umba Valley located in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. ....

Diamond clarity refers to the degree of transparency in the gemstone. If the number of flaws is less it indicates higher clarity and vice versa. Gems with more than 80% clarity are very rare in nature. Today, with new modern techniques it is possible to remove or reduce flaws and boost the clarity of natural diamonds. Mechanical treatments are widely used to enhance diamond clarity by removing the unwanted external and internal flaws from the stone. ....

Diamonds flaws could be described as inclusions that hinder the beauty same as the black image in beautiful full moon. These are inside as well as outside the gemstone and there presence always pinches because these flaws make the dazzling stone imperfect. ....

Ruby Pictures Gallery.

Rockhounding and gem books act a great resource for rockhounders to gain extensive knowledge in rockhounding, rocks, minerals and gemstones. Rockhounders must first select the books that match their interested rocks, minerals and gemstones which would help them in their specialized domain. ....

The best way rockhounders may enhance their knowledge in this area is by joining a rockhounding club. Rockhounding clubs pave the way for rockhounders to meet people belonging to the same area and those who share the same interest. In addition, rockhound clubs also run organized trips to nearby localities which help rockhounders visit rockhounding sites in groups and explore the same. ....

Diamonds are a woman's best friend. A diamond has the lustrous shine that attracts everyone towards it. The shine and glow of this gemstone can be retained forever with appropriate precautions and care. It is the hardest stone, with a hardness of 10 on the Moh's scale. Even then it is possible for a diamond to get chipped, scratched or damaged in a piece of jewelry. This could be due to improper setting techniques during manufacturing or careless use by the wearer. Therefore, it is very crucial to take safety measures to avoid spoiling the stone. This article would give the reader the general know-how about all the aspects that would help in preventing the gemstone from the any kind of damage.....

Here is a bird's eye view on the ever-popular hobbies of the Americans - Rock hounding. The aim of this article has been to throw light on the various important aspects of rock hounding like the seasons and time that are best suitable for rock hounding, cost, tools and equipments required for rock hounding, a peek into the history of rock hounding and last but definitely not the least, some of the major regional attractions for rock hounding. We aim at providing our readers a set of guidelines for safe, legal and responsible rock hounding. The tips provided here may be greatly helpful for our rock hounders to ensure they have successful outings. ....

It is usually seen that diamond rings are passed from one generation to other. In this case, it is totally one's emotions whether to reset the diamond from the old ring into a new ring or a pendent or any other jewelry piece. People by and large do not go in for the reset of family heirloom diamond unless there are some apparent reasons. ....

Rockhounding is for those who love to collect rocks and minerals from their natural environment as a recreational hobby or sport. It starts when you chance upon a beautiful stone which you pick up. Humans are very curious by nature so your curiosity about its origins is bound to get aroused at some point of time. Talk to a few people and you'll find there is a whole world of rockhounders there who love to do what you just did but they go the whole gamut. ....

Conflict Diamonds are referred to those stones that originate from vicinity controlled by the group of people who are recognized as rebel in the eyes of the government. Such stones are put on the market for sale to provide finances for the illicit and illegitimate action of these rebels, military and terrorist factions. Converted diamond, Blood diamond and War diamond are additional names for this diamond variant. ....

Interactive virtual tour of Important Diamond Mines as seen from Space. .

Like any other hobby or sport, there are some precautions to be kept in mind and this holds true for rock hounding as well. It sounds like an easy enough hobby - wear a hat, take a hammer and start looking; but it is not that simple and you would be really foolish if you went rock hounding minus preparation and precautions. ....

18 notable high value diamond auctions of 2008 by Sotheby auction house..

Rockhounder can carry out the process of rockhounding in Ouachita National Forest either as a hobby or recreational activity. Ouachita National Forest is located in the heart of the Ouachita Mountains through the west central portion of Arkansas and the southeastern portion of Oklahoma. The Ouachita National Forest is the south's oldest national forest, compromising more than 1.6 million acres. Rockhounding sites at Ouachita National Forest have abundant rock and quartz veins. Ouachita National Forest has many excellent mineral collecting rockhounding sites both inside the forest lands as well as in private land areas adjacent to the forest areas. Ouachita National Forest is one of the best sites for recreational rockhounders interested in quartz rockhounding.....

Arkansas is the best place for quartz crystal rockhounders. Arkansas rockhounding sites also have other rare and important minerals and gemstones for rockhounding. Some to mention in this direction are diamonds, wavellite, fossils, dolomite and exotic minerals. Arkansas rockhounding sites have abundant sources of minerals and gemstones that are sure to keep rockhounders and mineralogists busy in their activity of hunting and collecting. Quartz being a vital mineral on earth is found in abundance in the Arkansas region. The second abundant mineral found in the Arkansas region is wavellite.....

Rock hounding as a hobby often starts in the most innocuous of ways. Generally it starts with you finding something on the ground and it turns out to be a gemstone or a very pretty example of a colored rock. Soon you get tempted to find another and another and if you hit a lucky patch you could get addicted to the activity. But a newcomer must keep in mind that every day is not a Sunday and after that first lucky hit there may be periods of lull where you get nothing. Don't give up, take the time out to study and learn all about rocks, their recognition and identification.....

48 Stunning images of world Famous Diamond Pictures.

Rockhounding is a term used for the activity of rock hunting or collecting rocks and mineral samples from nature. This is more as recreation and hobby oriented and not from the commercial point of view. It has humble beginning as many die-hard rockhounders will tell you. Walking along they chanced upon a beautiful stone, which led them to look for more and more and suddenly they were avid hunters. ....

Top 10 Sapphire Pictures .

California is abundant with geological forces where mineralogists and gemologists can rockhound for the largest variety of rocks and minerals. The rock and mineral wealth of California has made California the most interesting and one of the oft visited places for rockhounders. ....

Rockhounding helps gemologists and mineralogists hunt and discover minerals and precious gemstones like jasper, opal, agate, turquoise, geodes, zircon, black spinel, garnet, varieties of quartz, topaz and tourmaline and so on. People can choose either popular sites for rockhounding which normally have the ease of accessibility or can hunt and dig and then choose rare sites where there is possibility of getting better samples as they would not have been visited by all rockhounders. Fossicking is another technical term used to refer to the process of searching for gemstones and rockhounding which is used when looking for fossils, mineral specimens etc. ....

Rockhounding refers to the activity of collection of minerals and rocks from nature. The persons carrying out the activity of rockhounding are termed rock hounders or prospectors.....

The origins of crystallography lie in morphology which deals with the study of mineral crystals and also anisotropy which details the physical attributes of mineral crystals. ....

Recrystallization is the technique of purifying solids based on their different solubility. That is, recrystallization deals with the cleaning method or the transformation of a crystal structure, as a result of the change in external factors, for example temperature and pressure.....

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A consistent repeated pattern of connected atoms or molecules would result in formation of a crystal. There are several techniques used for growing crystals. ....

Crystallography refers to the analysis of atoms in crystals and topology refers to the study of distortion and invariant connectivity characteristics of mathematical objects. Thus, crystallographic topology deals with association of the two attributes together. The topology of crystallographic groups is approached using orbifolds, and that of simple crystal structures using Morse functions on orbifolds. ....

Symmetry operations are used to describe the crystal's outward symmetry. Symmetry operations help to define the manner in which a crystal can repeat the facets or faces on their crystal's surface. ....

Bravais crystal lattice in crystallography is used to explain the geometrical symmetry of a crystal in details. The other term used to refer to bravais crystal lattice is space lattice. ....

The physical attributes of crystals need to be studied in detail for the categorization of crystals. This is a highly specialized field of crystallography. ....

Quasi crystals stand as a special case of in-commensurate crystal phase. Quasi crystals are present in a space group having more than three dimensions. For instance, structures like dihedral and icosahedral structures are categories belonging to this type. Even the two-dimensional Penrose patterns could be matched with symmetry structure of quasi crystals. ....

The crystal groups are broadly classified into thirty two classes of symmetry. These broad classifications of crystal classes are got based on the exterior form of crystal. These broad classifications of thirty two crystal classes further have 230 sub space groups. These vary among themselves and are classified based on the analysis and observation of x-rays. It is also an interesting fact that even crystals made from the same mineral possess different crystal forms. This is attributed to each mineral's crystal conditions of growth.....

The six crystal systems could be well understood by getting a fair knowledge about the topic of solid geometry. For this one must have a base knowledge about crystallographic axes. In broad classification, there are six crystal systems in general. The crystallographic axes play a vital role to segregate and place all well known minerals into these six crystal systems.....

The Crystallographic Symmetry and the applications related to it are vital for people related to various fields namely mathematicians, physicists, and chemists and so on and many researches and investigation related to these have been carried by them. The operations related to crystallographic symmetry could fall in any of the different kinds of available isometries. So first it is essential to have a fair knowledge about isometries and its kinds which will be dealt in the below section. Generally an object is referred as symmetric with respect to a transformation only if the object appears to be in a state that is identical to its initial state after the transformation. In terms of crystallography the types of symmetry is in terms of an apparent movement of the object such as some type of rotation or translation. ....

The various gemstones take their shape and structure based on their unique crystalline structure that each gemstone possesses. These crystalline structures of each gemstone is based and made from a mixture of different elemental compounds. Thus the atomic structure associated with elemental building blocks contributes towards the shape of a crystal or gemstone. ....