Quick answer: Moonstone and labradorite are feldspars whose glow comes from internal structure, not pigment. Moonstone’s floating blue-white sheen (adularescence)
Moonstone and Labradorite: The Physics Behind the Glow Read Post »
Quick answer: “Jade” is two different minerals: nephrite, an amphibole (tremolite-actinolite), and jadeite, a pyroxene. French mineralogist Augustin Damour showed
Quick answer: Obsidian is natural volcanic glass: silica-rich lava that cooled so quickly its atoms had no time to arrange
Obsidian: Volcanic Glass With No Crystal Structure At All Read Post »
Quick answer: Malachite, a copper carbonate hydroxide, grows in concentric bands as copper-rich water deposits thin layers in cavities, and
Malachite’s Banding: Reading Millions of Years in a Single Slice Read Post »
Quick answer: Turquoise is a hydrated copper aluminum phosphate that forms where copper-rich water seeps through rock in arid climates.
Turquoise: A Copper Mineral That Rarely Looks the Same Twice Read Post »
Quick answer: Emerald, aquamarine, morganite, heliodor, and goshenite are all the same mineral: beryl, a beryllium aluminum silicate. Trace elements
Beryl’s Many Colors: Emerald, Aquamarine, and Morganite Are the Same Mineral Read Post »
Quick answer: Ruby and sapphire are the same mineral, corundum (aluminum oxide, Al2O3). Red corundum is ruby, colored by chromium;
Corundum: The Mineral Behind Both Ruby and Sapphire Read Post »
Quick answer: Garnet is a group of related silicate minerals, not a single mineral. The main species are almandine and
Quick answer: Fluorite (calcium fluoride) gave its name to fluorescence: in 1852, physicist George Gabriel Stokes named the glow after
Fluorite: The Mineral That Named a Scientific Phenomenon Read Post »
Quick answer: Pyrite (iron sulfide, FeS2) fooled prospectors because its brassy-yellow metallic shine resembles gold. Simple tests tell them apart:
