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Gems & minerals

Rocks, minerals and crystals, including precious and semi-precious gemstones.

Showing 1-20 of 61

Ais forAgate

Agates are a common variety of brightly coloured quartz. They come in a range of colours depending on the mineral impurities they contain, and can be used in jewelry.
Alexandrite is a beryllium aluminium compound that is a different colour depending on which angle you look at it. The most prized colour combination is a range from green to purple.

Ais forAlum

Alum could refer to either a specific mineral, or a general class of similar ones. ( /?æl?m/) is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The mineral usually referred to as alum is hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate.
Alum is an effective blood coagulant, and used to be sold in blocks as part of shaving kits. You use it to stop shaving cuts from bleeding.

Ais forAmber

Amber is fossilised tree resin. It is a deep orange colour, and sometimes has insects trapped in it.

Ais forAmethyst

Amethyst is a violet variety of quartz, with the purple colour coming from trace amounts of iron and aluminium. Amethyst is a popular stone for making jewelry from.
Aquamarine is a clear, pale blue variety of beryl. The blue colour is due to iron impurities.

Ais forAsbestos

Asbestos refers to a group of silicate rocks that have the interesting property of forming long, thin fibers. Asbestos was cheap, strong, had great insulating qualities and was widely used as a building material, with its use peaking in the 1970s.
Asbestos can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other issues if it is inhaled, and because of this its use is currently banned in many countries.
Aventurine is a type of quartz which has impurities that make it green, translucent, and with a shimmering effect. Some types of aventurine are orange, brown, yellow, blue, or grey but the most common is green. Most of the world's green aventurine is found in India.

Bis forBasalt

Basalt is a common rock made by lava cooling down quickly. Basalt is usually dark grey or black. Depending on how it cools down, basalt can be found in columns like in the picture, in a grid or hexagonal pattern, or even full of bubbles.

Bis forBeryl

Beryl is a colorless mineral made up of beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate. It forms hexagonal crystals that can be very large. When beryl has impurities, it can have a coloured tint or be opaque. Coloured beryl has different names - green beryl is called emerald, pale blue beryl is called aquamarine and pink beryl is called morganite.
Brimstone is an old English biblical name for sulfur. Brimstone gets its name because it is formed around the vents of volcanoes.

Cis forCarbon

Carbon is an element, and it is not a metal. Carbon can be found in many forms, the most well-known are: a clear, crystalline form called diamond, the black graphite found in lead pencils and common carbon that is found as coal and soot.
Carnelian, also called sard, is a deep red stone often used in jewelry. It is a silicate with large amounts of iron impurities.

Cis forChalk

Chalk is a soft, white rock that can be used to draw with on rough surfaces. Chalk is usually sold in small coloured sticks, for drawing on blackboards and sidewalks.

Cis forCitrine

Citrine is quartz containing iron impurities, which gives it a yellow colour. Amethyst will turn into citrine if it is heated.

Cis forCrystal

A crystal is any solid that is made up of tiny parts called molecules, aranged in a regular geometric pattern in all three dimensions. Many rocks are crystalline, and can be very pretty.
The crystals in the picture are salt crystals.
Diamonds are made from carbon arranged in a very rigid crystalline pattern. This makes diamond the hardest substance in the world. It is also very good at dispersing light, which gives diamonds their sparkle. Diamonds are very popular in jewellery like rings and necklaces.

Eis forEmerald

Emeralds are a gemstone quality variant of beryl, made from beryllium aluminium silicate. The deep green colour is from trace amounts of chromium. Emerald tends to be imperfect, with inclusions and fissures so while the pure stone is hard, emeralds are actually quite prone to breaking.

Fis forFeldspar

Feldspar is a group of minerals, composed of aluminium silicates mixed with either potassium, sodium, and calcium. Feldspar is a crystalline rock and makes up around 60% of the Earth's crust.

Fis forFossil

When an animal or plant dies and is buried under the ground with the right conditions for thousands or even millions of years, it turns to stone. Later when we dig them back up, we call them a fossil. When something has been turned into a fossil it is fossilised.
People have found fossils of all sized creatures, from tiny sea snails, to frogs, right up to enormous dinosaurs. Most of the creatures that people find as fossils are extinct - you can no longer see a living animal of that kind.
The fossil in the picture is a trilobite.