Tag: Rock Science
What are Common Opal Colors?
Common opal colors lack the glittering, multicolored opalescence of its precious counterpart, but it is nevertheless a beautiful gemstone with its own unique qualities.
Opal:...
Garnet’s Industrial Uses
Garnet's industrial uses are one of the reasons garnet mining is booming. Garnet has become a bona fide industrial commodity because it is a...
Are Zircon and Zirconia the Same?
Are zircon and zirconia the same? Despite similar-sounding names, zircon, zirconium, and cubic zirconia refer respectively to a mineral, an element and a synthetic...
What are Gold-Pan Concentrates?
Gold panners tend to categorize their pan concentrates as either gold or “black sand”—and discard the latter without much of a second look. And...
Smithson, Smithsonite & the Smithsonian
Smithsonite, or zinc carbonate, is a favorite among mineral collectors for its range of pleasing colors and often well-developed, botryoidal crystal habit. Most collectors...
The Era of Super-Large Diamonds
Super-large diamonds — stones of several hundred carats or more — command fabulous prices. Because of their great rarity, numerous cutting options, and prestige...
Silver: A Story of Its Own
By Steve Voynick
As a precious metal, silver has always taken a backseat to gold in terms of rarity, value, color, density, and workability. Nevertheless,...
Rock Science: Meteors and Meteorites
By Steve Voynick
The earliest meteorite with a documented place and date of fall came to Earth in France’s Alsace region in 1492. With a...
Rock Science: Marcasite
By Steve Voynick
Mention iron disulfide and the mineral that comes to mind is pyrite. And well it should, for pyrite, widely collected and the...
Issue Highlights: December 2019
Below is a snapshot of some of the topics and interests you can expect to see in the pages of the December 2019 issue...
