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!

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

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

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

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

Synthetic Opal is a man-made material with the play-of-color and appearance of natural opal.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organic Gems are gems formed from plant or animal materials.

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

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

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

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

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

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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