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.

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

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

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.

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!

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

Sunstone A feldspar with aventurescence caused by tiny copper inclusions.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Organic Gems are gems formed from plant or animal materials.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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