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A purple-pink star sapphire displaying asterism in a platinum ring. An asterism (from Ancient Greek ἀστήρ (astḗr) 'star' and -ism) is a star-shaped concentration of light reflected or refracted from a gemstone. It can appear when a suitable stone is cut en cabochon (i.e. shaped and polished, not faceted). A gemstone that exhibits this ...
In gemology, chatoyancy (/ ʃəˈtɔɪ.ənsi / shə-TOY-ən-see), also called chatoyance or the cat's eye effect, [1] is an optical reflectance effect seen in certain gemstones, woods, and carbon fiber. Coined from the French œil de chat, meaning 'cat's eye'. The chatoyant effect is typically characterized by one or more well-defined bands of ...
Each of the three notable types of opal – precious, common, and fire [3] – display different optical effects; therefore, the intended meaning varies depending on context. The general definition of opalescence is a milky iridescence displayed by an opal, which describes the visual effect of precious opal very well, and opalescence is ...
Chrysoberyl. The mineral or gemstone chrysoberyl is an aluminate of beryllium with the formula Be Al 2 O 4. [ 5 ][ 6 ] The name chrysoberyl is derived from the Greek words χρυσός chrysos and βήρυλλος beryllos, meaning "a gold-white spar". Despite the similarity of their names, chrysoberyl and beryl are two completely different ...
Sapphire is one of the two gem-varieties of corundum, the other being ruby (defined as corundum in a shade of red). Although blue is the best-known sapphire color, it occurs in other colors, including gray and black, and also can be colorless. A pinkish orange variety of sapphire is called padparadscha.
Peridot. Peridot (/ ˈpɛrɪˌdɒt, - ˌdoʊ / PERR-ih-dot, -doh), sometimes called chrysolite, is a yellow-green transparent variety of olivine. Peridot is one of the few gemstones that occur in only one color. Peridot can be found in mafic and ultramafic rocks occurring in lava and peridotite xenoliths of the mantle.
Contents. Luminous gemstones. Folktales about luminous gemstones are an almost worldwide motif in mythology and history among Asian, European, African, and American cultures. Some stories about light-emitting gems may have been based on luminescent and phosphorescent minerals such as diamonds.
Crystal twinning. Quartz – Japan twin. Diagram of twinned crystals of albite. On the more perfect cleavage, which is parallel to the basal plane (P), is a system of fine striations, parallel to the second cleavage (M). Crystal twinning occurs when two or more adjacent crystals of the same mineral are oriented so that they share some of the ...