Cool rocks and other gems!

[A window to the soul]

^cool crystal.

The emerald. Isn't it lovely?

 

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^cool crystal.

The emerald. Isn't it lovely?

Emerald
The proper name for the emerald is beryl, but there are different colors of beryl. Emerald Green is the color as well as the stone. When blue is added to the green, the beryl is known as Aquamarine. Pink beryl is morganite, yellow beryl is golden beryl, yellow-green beryl is heliodor. There is also a red beryl, but it is quite rare. Chemically, it is a beryllium-aluminum silicate whose color is due to small quantities of chromium compounds.

Emerald is a stone of love and romance. It brings and enhances joy, cleansing, clairvoyance, memory, and faith. It also benefits intuition and communication, and promotes truthfulness. Emerald is associated with the heart chakra. The emerald is said to bring the wearer reason and wisdom. The strongest time for the powers of the emerald is said to be spring.

Very nice, emeralds are awesome.

 

[Synapse]

Synapse .. Do you own any stones personally?? You seem very interested
Nice pics you added though

I bought a few recently, kyanite and tourmaline and that got me interested in the world of gemstones. And what beliefs and facts are presented about them. Its very interesting to me. I wouldn't have thought, I was totally oblivious until now where I want to know about them more.

 

[Saslou]

I bought a few recently, kyanite and tourmaline and that got me interested in the world of gemstones. And what beliefs and facts are presented about them. Its very interesting to me. I wouldn't have thought, I was totally oblivious until now where I want to know about them more.

Good for you

You may already know but crystals are also productive in aligning your chakra's. Although brief in it's explanation, it is rather interesting as an alternative therapy.

Here is a list of the 7 major chakras and their associated colors:

1st chakra - The ROOT
Primary color is red, other colors associated with the Root Chakra are black brown, and gray.
Gemstones like Garnet or Onyx, Red Jasper

2nd chakra - The Naval
Primary color is orange, others are all various shades of orange.
Gemstones like Carnelian, orange Zincite

3rd chakra - The Solar Plexus
Primary color is yellow, others are various shades of yellow.
Gemstones like Citrine, Yellow Sapphire, yellow topaz

4th chakra - The Heart
Primary color is green and shades of green, the secondary color is pink.
Gemstones like Rose Quartz or Green Tourmaline or aventurine

5th chakra - The Throat
Primary color is light blue like aqua or turquoise, secondary colors are various shades of lighter blues.
Gemstones like Turquoise or Blue Lace Agate

6th chakra - The Third eye ( or brow)
Primary color is dark blue or various shades of dark blue.
Gemstones like Lapis Lazuli or Sodalite

7th chakra - The Crown
Primary color is purple, the secondary colors are shades of purple and colorless (clear) or white.
Gemstones like Amethyst or Clear Quartz

 

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Good for you

You may already know but crystals are also productive in aligning your chakra's. Although brief in it's explanation, it is rather interesting as an alternative therapy.

Thanks, I am communicating better now whether due to this or the alternative treatment I had recently, I am happier to talk at last without feeling reserved, you know proper communication rather than just visualization as much as I love doing that nothing beats a good conversation. An energy shift has certainly been happening in recent times that I can hardly explain and its liberating.

 

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So, one of the geologists that used to work with me gave me arsenic crystals from his own mineral collection because I admired it once.

It looks a bit like this

But you have to ask yourself, if someone gives you arsenic, should you be flattered?

He let you take arsenic crystals just like that? Did you wear gloves or put it away somewhere where its non hazardous?

 

[EcK]

Asteroids, when not in direct sunlight.

 

[EcK]

Mount augustus, Australia.

Oh, and I like baltic amber

 

[EcK]

Blue dominican amber

against sunlight

under sunlight

It's the same rock (according to the source)

 

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Asteroids, when not in direct sunlight.

Asteroid: A relatively small, inactive body, composed of rock, carbon or metal, which is orbiting the Sun.
Comet: A relatively small, sometimes active object, which is composed of dirt and ices. Comets are characterised by dust and gas tails when in proximity to the Sun. Far from the Sun it is difficult to distinguish an asteroid from a comet.
Meteoroid: A small particle from an asteroid or comet orbiting he Sun.
Meteor: A meteoroid that is observed as it burns up in the Earth's atmosphere - a shooting star.
Meteorite: A meteoroid that survives its passage through the Earth's atmosphere and impacts the Earth's surface.

Asteroid interior


[youtube="S_d-gs0WoUw"]Asteroid Discovery[/youtube]

Whoah!

 

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Mount augustus, Australia.

Mt Augustus or Ayers Rock (Uluru)

The Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a large sandstone rock formation in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which also includes the neighbouring rock formation of the Kata Tjuta (The Olgas). Both, Uluru and Kata Tjuta, came into being about 600 million years ago and are part of a subterranean rock formation. Thus, contrary to popular opinion, the Uluru is not a monolith. The gigantic "Island Mountain" has a length of 3,4 km, a maximum width of 2 km and measures more than 9 km in circumference. The peak rises majestically to a height of over 350 m above the surrounding plain. Uluru is composed of coarse grained sandstone, which contains a significant quantity of feldspar and quartz as well as other silicate minerals. The red-rusty colour of the rock results from iron bearing minerals by the process of oxidation.

And and a French tourist stripped on the rock too.

 

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Blue dominican amber

against sunlight

under sunlight

It's the same rock (according to the source)

Very nice

Baltic amber

Blue dominican amber

 

[Vasilisa]

He let you take arsenic crystals just like that? Did you wear gloves or put it away somewhere where its non hazardous?

No personal protective equipment, no. Some of the finer crystals were breaking off, but I wasn't going to inhale them or anything. And yes, I put it where it won't be touched.



Whats neat to consider with minerals and gems is what a limited resource they are.

 

[Vasilisa]

Bizmuth crystals are cool. I have some treated Bizmuth crystals that look like this.

To me, it looks like a world of science fiction.

 

[Synapse]

Bizmuth crystals are cool. I have some treated Bizmuth crystals that look like this.

To me, it looks like a world of science fiction.

That is utterly outstanding, amazingly geometrical in design, almost mathematical. What does treated mean? How much does it weigh?

Bismuth is a semi-metal. In nature, it is silverish and is not found in its crystallized form. Bismuth does not crystallize naturally, because there is usually not enough space for its crystals to form properly. With a little help from humans, it is melted and recrystallized into a beautiful iridescent rainbow form. It is by definition a heavy metal, it's non-toxic.

Bismuth forms beautifully colored and geometrically intricate hopper crystals as it slowly cools and solidifies from its molten state. The distinctive, 'hoppered', shape of a Bismuth crystal results from a higher growth rate around its outer edges than on its inside face. The higher rate of growth on the edges forms a crystal which appears to be partially hollowed out in a rectangular-spiral stair step design.

Bismuth is a stone of transformation, moving things from chaos to order. In addition, Bismuth has been known to promote cooperation in group situations and also in relationships. Bismuth is excellent for improving concentration and visualization.

 

[A window to the soul]

Synapse, thanks for posting the write-ups on the cool rocks and other gems; especially, the emerald. I've enjoyed the reading.

Equally stunning, but not as rare, is the ruby. There's something about ruby red that's irrisistable...

 

[Stevo]

Well, as a Geologist, I found this thread to be lacking in pictures of actual rocks. So here's some from my recent field work! (Credit for the pictures themselves mostly goes to my friend)

A beautiful example of a stratigraphic boundary between the Rockwell Formation (Yellow sandstone on the left) and the Purslane Formation (Grey shale on the right) at Sidling Hill in Western Maryland. Rock hammer suspended there for scale.

Crystal-clear cross-bedding in the Sandstone Rockwell Formation at the same locality. Cross-bedding forms in sandstone as a marker of the prevailing direction of the wind. You can see it most clearly intersecting the end of the handle of his rock hammer, it's pretty much all the swirly patterns in the rocks.

You can see the bedding planes pretty clearly in this photo. Also notable is the small-scale folding apparent in the rocks in the lower-left corner.

Awesome picture of some centimeter-scale folding.

Picture-perfect meter-scale anticline. (A type of fold) You can see the folding in the purple band of rock in the center of the photo.

Another good anticline. Also notable is my professor in the lower-left corner.

A seriously whacked-out fold. The original bedding was turned on its side (So that it was oriented vertically) and then bent 90 degrees.

A large-scale tectonic foliation at Maryland Heights overlook in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. I'm standing on the tall rock, facing away from the camera.

Some sneaky bedding planes mixed in with the foliation planes. The bedding is the black bands interspersed in the green rock.

There, now we have some actual geology mixed in with all the pictures of the pretty gems.

 

[A window to the soul]

^ Neat pics. What does 'folding' mean? What's 'tectonic foliation'?

 

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Stratigraphic boundary
Purslane Formation.
Bedding planes.
Small-scale folding.
Centimeter-scale folding.
Meter-scale anticline.
Tectonic foliation.
Foliation planes.

I'm with Perfectgirl would you expand on some of the terminology.

Is geology an earth science? Are there different fields in geology? Are there different crystals and rock formations. I'm interested in learning more about this and your in the field so to speak. How did you get into wanting to become a geologist? Are there different types of crystals and rock formations and how do they form?

I know asking too much. Thanks for the great photos.

 

[Synapse]

Synapse, thanks for posting the write-ups on the cool rocks and other gems; especially, the emerald. I've enjoyed the reading.

Equally stunning, but not as rare, is the ruby. There's something about ruby red that's irrisistable...

Aww thanks.

Yeah I can imagine why they would be irresistible - rubies are up to ten times more valuable than a Diamond of equal carat and clarity. A perfectly translucent Ruby is rare. Stones larger than five carats and of perfect clarity are extremely rare and can fetch a quarter of a million dollars per carat at auction.

Ruby, the name given to red, gem-quality corundum - is one of the best gemstone for jewelry settings. Rubies may be any shade of red, from pinkish to purplish or brownish red, depending on the chromium and iron content of the stone. Frequent twinning of the crystals makes the material liable to fracture, yet ruby is a tough mineral, second only to diamond in hardness.

Synthetic Ruby stones are quite common and very difficult to tell from natural stones. Only a trained eye can detect the differences in crystalline structures, all other elements are identical. When purchasing jewelry set with Rubies, be sure to ask if they have been heat treated or are lab grown.

The ruby is quite certainly a wonderful gemstone for bringing fire into your life. For if you like to live your life intensely, but often find it difficult to keep focus, a ruby can help bring clarity and wisdom to your world. Instead of flitting from idea to idea, this gemstone will very well help you choose your most productive paths.