All gems are beautiful in their own way. And each of them hides features unknown even to the owners of jewelry. Nature has endowed many minerals with wonderful properties. Crystals created artificially in laboratories are capable of striking no less.
The most popular gemstones are sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and rubies.
Natural gems
However, there are quite a few natural crystals that are much less well known. These minerals include:
- alexandrite;
- torburnite;
- fluorite;
- scolecite;
- chalcanthite;
- musgravit;
- taaffeite.
An unusual ability of alexandrite, a type of chrysoberyl with an admixture of chromium, has become the ability to change color depending on the type of lighting. In the light of day, it shimmers with green hues, and artificial springs make the stone crimson red.
Calcium fluoride, fluorite, got its name from its ability to luminesce under the influence of ultraviolet radiation. Mineral and the name of the phenomenon of fluorescence.
Outwardly beautiful emerald-colored torbernite is life-threatening. The radioactive mineral, when heated, releases toxic radon. No less formidable is blue copper sulfate, chalcanthite. It releases toxic substances when immersed in water.
An interesting representative of the silicate group is scolecite. It is covered with green, pink and white transparent long needles. When heated, they wriggle.
Lilac taaffeite is millions of times rarer than diamond. A variety of taaffeite, musgravite, was first discovered 50 years ago in Australia. Usually yellow-green stones are found, purple-violet are much less common. The gem is one of the rarest in the world: a total of 14 crystals have been found.
Incidents related to stones
Interesting stories are associated with natural gems. So, it is forbidden to wear alexandrite in a single copy. It is believed that the stone, named after Emperor Alexander II, must be paired.
American Steve Meyer used the world's largest sapphire as a paperweight. The radiologist did not even suspect that he was so careless with the jewel until he took the crystal for examination on the advice of a familiar gemologist.
Ruby owes its red color to impurities of chromium, blue sapphire is made by blotches of iron and titanium. Aquamarine and emerald are varieties of beryl. The addition of iron makes aquamarine blue, and the emerald owes its formation to vanadium.
Artificial crystals
Scientists endow the stones they create in laboratories with the properties that a person needs. This is elbor, mystic topaz, organic pearls.
Elbor, created in 1957, is equal in hardness to diamond. In terms of resistance to high temperatures, boron nitride surpassed the hardest natural gem in the world.
An improved version of quartz and topaz is called mystic topaz. A coating of gold or titanium is applied to the surface of the crystal under the influence of high temperature. Thanks to them, the mineral acquires an iridescent glow.
The technology for producing artificial pearls has been known since the middle of the last century. The mother-of-pearl coating is applied to plastic beads in dozens of layers. Outwardly, it is very difficult to distinguish even multi-colored pearls from natural ones.
