Gemstones

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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