Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphires. Ruby is one of the traditional cardinal gems, alongside amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamond. [3] The word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red. The color of a ruby is due to the element chromium.
Inclusions of the mineral dumortierite within quartz pieces often result in silky-appearing splotches with a blue hue. Shades of purple or gray sometimes also are present. "Dumortierite quartz" (sometimes called "blue quartz") will sometimes feature contrasting light and dark color zones across the material. [43] [44] "Blue quartz" is a minor ...
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.
Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminium oxide (Al 2 O 3) typically containing traces of iron, titanium, vanadium, and chromium. [3] [4] It is a rock-forming mineral.It is a naturally transparent material, but can have different colors depending on the presence of transition metal impurities in its crystalline structure. [7]
There are about 20 mineral species that qualify as gem minerals, which constitute about 35 of the most common gemstones. Gem minerals are often present in several varieties, and so one mineral can account for several different gemstones; for example, ruby and sapphire are both corundum, Al 2 O 3. [43]
Green quartz is sometimes called green amethyst; the scientific name is prasiolite. [9] Other names for green quartz are vermarine and lime citrine. Amethyst frequently shows color zoning, with the most intense color typically found at the crystal terminations. One of gem cutters' tasks is to make a finished product with even color. Sometimes ...
The extreme hardness and high value of diamond means that gems are typically polished slowly, using painstaking traditional techniques and greater attention to detail than is the case with most other gemstones; [30] these tend to result in extremely flat, highly polished facets with exceptionally sharp facet edges. Diamonds also possess an ...
The word beryl – Middle English: beril – is borrowed, via Old French: beryl and Latin: beryllus, from Ancient Greek βήρυλλος bḗryllos, which referred to a 'precious blue-green color-of-sea-water stone'; [2] from Prakrit veruḷiya, veḷuriya 'beryl' [8] [a] which is ultimately of Dravidian origin, maybe from the name of Belur or ...