Gemstones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

United States Gemstones Small mines in the U.S. produce a diversity of gemstones.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organic Gems are gems formed from plant or animal materials.

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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