Gemstones

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Organic Gems are gems formed from plant or animal materials.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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