Gemstones

Diamond A collection of photos, articles, facts, maps and graphs about diamonds.

Pictures of Opal A collection of different types of opal from all around the world and Mars too!

Lepidolite - a pink to purple mica sometimes used as a gem. A source of color in pink aventurine.

Ruby and Sapphire are the 2nd and 3rd most popular colored stones in the United States.

100+ Gems - Photos of over 100 beautiful gems ranging from the popular to the obscure.

Emerald is the most popular green gemstone in the United States and most of the world.

Tumbled Stones are rocks that have been rounded, smoothed and polished in a rock tumbler.

Mined in America - Small mines in the United States produce a diversity of beautiful gemstones.

Common Opal is a material that does not exhibit the play-of-color seen in precious opal.

Extraterrestrial Gems A number of materials from space are used as attractive gems.

Colored Diamonds are diamonds with a noticeable body color. They can sell for over $1M/carat.

Fire Agate is a rare brown agate that exhibits iridescent colors of red, orange, yellow and green.

Blue Gemstones - Most people shopping for a colored stone are looking for something blue.

Gem Mineral Collections are a great way to learn about gem materials. Get yours.

Amethyst - the most popular purple gem. It has a beautiful color and reasonable price.

Green Gemstones - emerald, peridot, jade, tsavorite, chrome diopside, chrysoprase, more.

Gemstones of the World : A book by Robert Schumann. Over one million copies sold.

Moonstone is one of the world*s most popular gems. A soft glow of light floats under its surface.

Blood Diamonds Illegally-traded diamonds that may have been stolen or used to fund conflict.

Strontium Titanate - lab created diamond simulant with fire much stronger than diamond.

Ant Hill Garnets - tiny gems that ants haul to the surface and discard on their anthill. Honest!

Goldstone is a colorful man-made glass that is full of highly-reflective metallic inclusions.

Geodes look like ordinary rocks on the outside but can be spectacular inside!

Topaz is a popular birthstone and the #8 mineral in the Mohs Hardness Scale.

Petrified Wood is a fossilized wood that often serves as a colorful gem material.

Labradorite is a feldspar gem that can produce bright flashes of iridescent color.

Turquoise A blue to bluish- green gem material that has been used for over 6000 years.

Ethiopian Opal - The new opal heavyweight that might give Australia a run.

Jade has been used as a gemstone and a tool-making material for for 1000s of years.

Tanzanite was unknown until a few decades ago but it has erupted into wide popularity.

Ruby & Sapphire are gem corundums - ruby when red, sapphire when other colors.

Ammolite is a fossil and a gemstone. It is shell material from fossil ammonites.

Geology of Gems - The first comprehensive book on the geology of gem deposits.

US Diamond Mines Where are diamonds mined in the United States?

Cat's-Eye Opal - a phenomenal opal that exhibits chatoyance when properly cut en cabochon.

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

You Can Be A Diamond Miner! At the Crater of Diamonds mine you can keep what you find.

Star Garnets are found in only a few locations worldwide. They are the state gems of Idaho.

Zircon is a popular and colorful gem with fire and brightness that rivals diamond.

Tourmaline - the most colorful mineral and natural gem material on Earth.

Spodumene is an ore of lithium and the mineral of the gems kunzite and hiddenite.

Jet is a black organic gem material that forms from well-preserved woody material.

Rock Tumblers - All about rock tumblers and rock tumbling. Read before you buy a tumbler.

Diamonds Do Not Form From Coal Learn several reasons why the coal origin is false.

Iris Agate can produce a rainbow of colors when light passes between its thin bands.

Lapis Lazuli - a metamorphic rock and the most popular blue opaque gemstone in history.

Garnet is best known as a red gemstone. It occurs in any color and has many industrial uses.

Tiffany Stone is a rare purple, blue and white rock, mined in Utah, and used as a gem.

Sonora Sunrise is a gem material of Mexico composed of red cuprite and blue-green chrysocolla.

Fire Opal is a transparent to translucent opal with a yellow, orange or red background color.

Magnesite is a white mineral that is often dyed to imitate turquoise or dyed outrageous colors for fun.

Cabochons A photo gallery of cabochon gemstones from around the world.

Facts About Diamonds You are a diamond expert if you know all of these!

Yellow Diamonds are the most valuable yellow gems and the 2nd most common fancy diamond.

Spinel The gemstone that was confused with ruby and sapphire for over 1000 years.

Morado Opal is a purple variety of common opal which is found in central Mexico.

Malachite has served as a gem material, pigment and ore of copper for thousands of years.

Organic Gems are gems formed from plant or animal materials.

Chatoyant Gems look like the eye of a cat. They have a line of light that moves across the gem.

Titanite is also known as sphene. It is a minor source of titanium and a minor gem.

Rhodochrosite : a manganese mineral used as an ore, a pink gem and an ornamental stone.

Benitoite - Geology of the State Gem of California - USGS report from 1911.

U.S. Gemstone Production is very low compared to the U.S. being the largest consumer.

Kyanite is a metamorphic mineral used to make porcelain, abrasive products and gems.

Hardness Picks - Mohs hardness testing with precise and easy-to-use hardness picks.

Spectacular Diamonds have an exceptional size, color, clarity, crystal form or other property.

Green Diamonds - one of the rarest and most valuable diamond colors.

Gem Silica is a blue chalcedony colored by copper. It is the rarest and most valuable chalcedony.

Red Beryl is one of the rarest gems. Small amounts are mined at one locality in Utah.

Rose Quartz is the name used for specimens of translucent quartz with a pink color.

Azurite is a vivid blue copper mineral that can be cut into beautiful cabochon gems.

Diamonds are mined in many countries and their relative importance changes frequently.

Peridot is the gem variety of olivine. Derived from the mantle and rarely from meteorites.

Bloodstone is a dark green jasper with a splatter of red color that looks like blood.

Moldavite is a gem material born about 15 million years ago when a pair of asteroids struck Europe.

Iolite is the gem variety of the mineral cordierite. An alternative to sapphire and tanzanite.

Azurmalachite is a mixture of malachite and azurite. It can be a beautiful blue and green gem.

Chrysoprase - The translucent green variety of chalcedony that is colored by nickel.

Beryl - the mineral of emerald, aquamarine, morganite, heliodor, goshenite, and more.

Scapolite can be a pretty faceted stone or a translucent cab with cats-eye effects.

Brown Diamonds are growing in popularity and are frequently seen in fashion jewelry.

Aventurine - a translucent quartz with reflective inclusions that cause aventurescence.

Unakite A gem material composed of green epidote and pink orthoclase.

Smoky Quartz - A brown color-variety of the mineral quartz often cut as a gem.

Maw Sit Sit is a metamorphic rock and a gem material that was once thought be jade.

Heliodor is a yellow, greenish-yellow or golden yellow beryl used as a gem.

Serpentine - a group of metamorphic minerals used as gems and architectural stone.

Ametrine is a bicolor quartz (amethyst + citrine) and a gemstone of growing popularity.

Chrysoberyl an extreme gem. Its hardness is 8.5, can display chatoyance or color-change.

Synthetic Diamonds of spectacular quality are now being produced in labs.

Green Amethyst and Yellow Emerald are misleading names according to the FTC.

Fancy Sapphires are gem corundums of any color other than red, blue or colorless.

Gaspeite is a rare green ore of nickel that has become a popular gem in southwestern jewelry.

Rhodonite is a pink manganese silicate used as a gemstone, an ornamental stone and an ore.

Petrified Palm is often confused with petrified wood. It is a distinctly different material.

Looking Into the Mysteries of Gems and exploring their hidden secrets with a microscope.

Variscite is a yellowish green to bluish green mineral. It is similar to turquoise and cut as a gem.

Chrome Diopside is a green gemstone that is often used as an alternative stone for emerald.

Helenite is a man-made glass produced by fusing ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

Geology Tools - Rock hammers, field bags, hand lenses, maps, hardness picks, gold pans.

Apatite produces gemstones with vivid colors and is popular with collectors.

Peanut Wood? Yes! It is a very interesting gem material found in Western Australia.

Canadian Diamond Mines produce some of the largest and highest quality diamonds!

Zoisite is a diverse gem. Tanzanite, thulite and anyolite are three of its gem varieties.

Turritella Agate is a brown agate containing snail fossils from the Green River Formation.

Polka Dot Agate - a translucent blue to white agate with a suspension of colorful dots.

Andalusite - exhibits strong pleochroism and often has sets of oriented inclusions.

K2 Granite is a white granite with blue orbs of azurite. It is a new gem material from Pakistan.

Prasiolite is amethyst that has been heat-treated to a leek-green color.