Types and distinctive features of stones and minerals. List of the most famous gems

The bowels of our planet conceal countless treasures - minerals. Their indescribable diversity and beauty have always conquered human hearts. We invite you to admire a selection of these ‎beautiful examples of frozen natural harmony.‎

1 Opal Veined Petrified Wood
Under certain conditions, fragments of a fallen tree do not rot, but mineralize, turning into real stones of a bizarre shape. This requires hundreds of years and lack of air access to the material, resulting in a unique mineral that resembles fragments of an iced tree, dotted with sparkling inclusions of opal or chalcedony.‎

2. Uvarovit
Discovered in the 19th century in Siberia, a stone related to garnets was nicknamed by the people "Ural emerald". Chromium gives the mineral its bewitching green color. In nature, it is extremely rare, and a few finds are of very modest size. ‎By the way, it was this mineral that Alexander Kuprin meant in his work ‎‎“Garnet Bracelet.”‎

3. Fluorite
This mineral, which has long been used for decorative purposes and delighted the views of high society with graceful translucent vases and figurines glowing in the dark, has now found a more applied application in optics, becoming an excellent material for creating lenses.

4. Kemmererite
A very fragile fuchsia-colored stone - kemmererite - is considered a collector's item. To make a piece of jewelry out of it, the master needs to apply all his scrupulousness and precision. ‎For this reason, the cost of the processed mineral is extremely high.‎

5. Hematite, rutile and feldspar
The ability of the black mineral hematite, when processed, to color water in a blood-red color has caused many ineradicable superstitions regarding this stone. But it is popular not only for this reason - hematite is very common in nature and is used in addition to decorative in many applied areas.

6. Thorbernite
As bewitchingly beautiful this mineral is, it is just as deadly. Prisms of torbernite crystals contain uranium and can cause cancer in humans. In addition, when heated, these stones begin to slowly emit the most dangerous gas, radon.‎

7. Clinoclase‎
A rare clinoclase crystal has one small secret - when heated, this exquisitely beautiful mineral emits a garlic smell.‎

8. White barite studded with vanadinite crystals
Vanadinite got its name in honor of the Scandinavian goddess of beauty Vanadis. This mineral is one of the heaviest on the planet due to its high lead content. ‎Keep vanadinite crystals away from sunlight, as they tend to darken under their influence.‎

9 Fossil Egg? No - opal core geode
In places rich in minerals, you can find geodes - geological formations, which are cavities that conceal various minerals inside. On cuts and chips, geodes can look extremely outlandish and attractive.‎

10. Silver stibnite with barite
Stibnite is an antimony sulfide, but appears to be high grade silver. Thanks to this similarity, one day someone decided to make elite cutlery from this material. And it was a very bad idea… Antimony crystals cause severe poisoning, even after contact with the skin it is necessary to wash it thoroughly with soap.‎

11. Chalcanthite
The enchanting beauty of these crystals hides a mortal danger: once in a liquid environment, the copper contained in this mineral begins to rapidly dissolve, threatening all living things that get in its way. Just one small blue pebble is capable of destroying an entire pond with all its flora and fauna, so you should be extremely careful with it.

12. Cacoxenite
Acting as an inclusion, this rare mineral is able to give quartz and amethyst a unique color and higher value. As a representative of needle-like crystals, cacoxenite is incredibly fragile.‎

13. Labradorite
Mined in the northern regions, the mineral seems to reflect the sky under which it was found: colored overflows against the background of the darkness of the stone dotted with sparkling stars resemble the northern lights blazing on a long polar night.‎

14. Black Opal
The most valuable variety of opals. Despite the word "black" in the name, this mineral gets the highest value if it has a multi-colored sparkle against a dark background. ‎The more varied the shades of its radiance, the higher the price.‎

15. Kuprosklodovskite
Needle-like crystals of kuprosklodovskite attract admiring attention with the depth and variety of their green coloring, as well as their interesting shape. However, this mineral is mined in uranium deposits and is highly radioactive and should be kept away not only from living beings, but even from other minerals.‎

16. Blue halite and sylvite
Milky white or whitish sylvite is often found in volcanoes, and blue halite (sodium chloride) is often found in sedimentary rocks.‎

17. Bismuth
Artificially grown crystals have a recognizable iridescent sheen on their dark surface. This effect occurs due to the oxide film covering it. By the way, bismuth chloride is used in the creation of nail polishes as a means to give them shine.

18. Opal
The noble gemstone opal is demanding on the humidity surrounding it: if it stays in excessively dry conditions for a long time, it can fade and even crack. For this reason, opals should occasionally be "bathed" in clean water, and also worn more often if they are presented in the form of jewelry, so that the stones are saturated with moisture emanating from the human body. ‎

19. Tourmaline
Juicy red and pink colors, smooth transitions of shades with the most unexpected ranges make tourmaline one of the most popular collectible minerals. According to historians, it was these stones that crowned many decorations and accessories of members of royal families and eminent persons: from Catherine II to Tamerlane. ‎

20. Baildonite
The rare baildonite crystal owes its color to the copper contained in its composition, and its brilliance to a high percentage of lead.‎

21. Osmium ‎
Having the status of the densest natural substance, osmium is extremely difficult to process. The widespread use of this metal in medicine, manufacturing and the defense industry makes the demand for it incredibly high. And given the rarity of osmium in nature, the cost of one gram of its isotope is currently twenty thousand dollars.

22. Malachite
The whimsical arrangement of copper layers in the voids of karst caves, where malachite is born, determines the future structure of its patterns. They can be represented by concentric circles, star-shaped placers or chaotic ribbon patterns. ‎The age of malachite beads found in the ancient city of Jericho is determined by archaeologists to be 9,000 years old.‎

23. Emmonsite
A rather rare mineral emmonsite, presented in the form of small needle-like crystals with a glassy sheen, is found in the mines of North and South America.‎

24. Aquamarine on potassium mica
For the similarity of the edges to the purest sea waves, the Roman thinker Pliny the Elder gave this noble stone the name "aquamarine". More blue aquamarines are valued more than greenish ones. This mineral is very popular among designers and jewelry lovers, and its highest strength helps to create jewelry of any configuration.

25. Pallasite meteorite
In 1777, the German scientist Pallas delivered to the Kunstkamera Museum samples of a rare metal found in Krasnoyarsk at the site of a meteorite fall. Soon, the entire block of extraterrestrial origin weighing 687 kg was transported to St. Petersburg. This material was called "pallas iron" or pallasite. A similar substance from those that are mined on our planet has not been found. According to experts, this meteorite is an iron-nickel base with numerous inclusions of olivine crystals. ‎

26. Sick
Small cubic crystals of blue color - boleites - are especially valued in the countries of South and North America. So far, this rare mineral has not been seen in circulation in Russia.‎

27. Crocoite‎
The name "crocoite" comes from the ancient Greek word meaning "saffron", since the similarity of the crystal surface with this spice is noticeable to the naked eye. The red lead ore, which this mineral is, is of particular value to collectors and connoisseurs.

Hi all! Today I decided to talk about what jewelry is made of for a person. These are precious stones that are mined from the bowels of the Earth, in which minerals are found. And in this post we will talk about minerals, about the raw materials from which these beautiful jewels are made...

The earth's crust (more about the earth's crust), mainly consists of substances called -. Minerals have played a very important role in the development of mankind and the creation of civilizations.

People in the Stone Age used flint tools. A man about 10,000 years ago mastered the method of obtaining copper from ore, and with the invention of bronze (an alloy of tin and copper), a new age began - the Bronze Age.

Since the beginning of the Iron Age 3300 years ago, man has mastered more and more ways to use minerals that are mined from the earth's crust. As before, modern industry depends on the mineral resources of the Earth.

Finding new deposits requires knowledge of what they are, the ability to tell them apart, and how they ended up where we found them.

About 3,000 types of minerals are counted by scientists, but only 100 of them are quite widespread.

Minerals belong to the inorganic (non-living) world. They are most often solids. Only mercury is an exception.

organic and inorganic substances.

Everything that is mined from the earth, many call minerals. Also, they include fossil fuels, coal for example, in this category.

Mineralogists are people who study minerals professionally. They believe that oil, coal and natural gas are organic substances, because they were formed from the remains of once living animals and plants, and therefore are not minerals.

Minerals have a specific chemical composition. They are always homogeneous, in other words, all parts of the mineral are the same. They differ in this from rocks, which are composed of several minerals.

Minerals are composed of chemical elements, that is, substances that can no longer be decomposed into other substances by chemical means. In its natural form, out of 107 elements that are known to science, 90 are found in the earth's crust.

Some in the earth's crust are pure or almost pure. They are called native elements.

There are 22 native elements, among them - silver, gold and diamonds (one of the forms of carbon).

Earth's crust.

74% of the mass of the earth's crust is made up of two elements: silicon and oxygen. Another 24.27% are the other six elements: iron, aluminum, sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium. Together they form almost 99% of the earth's crust.

The most common minerals are these are silicates, a chemical compound of silicon and oxygen, often with an admixture of one or more of the other six elements.

Silicates such as mica, quartz and feldspars are the most common. In different proportions, all three are the main components of different types of granite. Quartz eroded from granite often accumulates along the coast and forms sandy beaches.

Definition of minerals.

Common minerals such as feldspars, quartz and mica are called rock-forming minerals. This distinguishes them from minerals, which are found only in small quantities.

Another rock-forming mineral is calcite. It forms limestone rocks.

There are a lot of minerals in nature. Mineralogists have developed a whole system of their definition, which is based on chemical and physical properties.

Very simple properties, such as hardness or color, sometimes help to recognize a mineral. And sometimes this requires complex laboratory tests using reagents.

Some minerals can be recognized by color, such as malachite (green) and lapis lazuli (blue). But color is often deceptive, because in many minerals it varies quite widely.

Differences in color depend on temperature, impurities, radiation, lighting and erosion.

Mineral trait and hardness.

Mineral Trait - it is the powder that you get when you scrape a mineral. A trait is an important characteristic: it sometimes differs from the color of the mineral in the sample and is usually constant for the same mineral.

Also, minerals still differ in hardness, which is estimated on the Mohs scale (named after the Austrian mineralogist) from 1 to 10.

The soft mineral talc on it corresponds to 1, and diamond, the hardest of natural minerals, corresponds to 10.

Specific gravity.

Specific gravity, or density, is the ratio between the weight of a substance and the same amount of water. This value for the definition is quite important.

If we take the specific gravity of water as 1, then for most minerals it varies from 2.2 to 3.2. The specific gravity of some minerals (there are few of them) is very high or very low.

For example, it is wounded in graphite 1.9, and in gold from 15 to 20, depending on the purity. For the definition of minerals, another indicator is cleavage, i.e., how the mineral breaks apart when struck.

Bringing the mineral to the light, you can get information about it. Transparent minerals transmit light so easily that everything can be seen through them.

Opaque minerals do not transmit light at all, but rather reflect it or absorb it. These properties are also used during the definition process. Minerals often have an iridescent or metallic sheen.

For example, galen (lead ore) has a metallic luster, it shines almost like a metal, while most silicates have a vitreous, they resemble shiny glass.

There are also other types of brilliance - earthy (dull), pearl, silky (or satin), adamant (like a diamond). Some minerals may have several types of luster.

The luster of calcites varies from earthy to glassy. Many minerals have specific properties that make them easy to recognize. For example, talc is soapy to the touch, while arsenic, a native element and arsenic, smell like garlic when heated.

Under x-ray or ultraviolet light, some minerals fluoresce (change color or glow). Others, under pressure or when heated, are electrically charged.

There are also minerals that can only be recognized through special tests in laboratories. Some dissolve only in concentrated acids, but not in dilute ones, others only in hot acids, but not in cold ones.

Crystals.

Minerals have their own specific composition and chemical formula. Halite (rock salt) has the chemical formula NaCl. This means that halite is a chemical compound of sodium (Na) and (Cl).

So each mineral has a certain and constant composition, the atoms of its elements build the correct three-dimensional lattice of a specific structure for it.

These crystal lattices are geometric figures, their flat faces are arranged symmetrically.

If you leave a little salty water in a flat dish for a while, it will evaporate, and salt crystals will form at the bottom.

A magnifying glass shows that they are regular cubes. The study of crystals is important for the identification of minerals, since the crystals of most minerals have a regular, defined shape.

There are seven basic crystallographic, or isometric, systems, which are called syngonies. For example, turquoise belongs to the triclinic system, ruby ​​belongs to the hexagonal system, diamond belongs to the cubic system.

Each system can be described in accordance with the specifics of its symmetry - the properties that, when a crystal rotates around an axis, allows it to appear in an identical form two or more times in one complete revolution.

By the number of symmetry axes, you can determine the crystal.

precious minerals.

People in the Stone Age made jewelry from gold, in the Bronze Age - from silver. Many minerals are at the disposal of jewelers today.

Diamond (especially colorless) is the most expensive gemstone. Also, the most expensive stones include: ruby, emerald and sapphire, which, first of all, are valued for their color.

These stones are so expensive that their weight is measured in carats. One carat is equal to 200 milligrams.

Diamond is a kind of chemically pure coal and does not differ in chemical composition from the ordinary soft mineral graphite, which is familiar to us from pencils.

Diamonds are valued for their brilliance and hardness. It acquires its brilliance when cutting and polishing. The reason for this difference between graphite and diamond is that their atoms are arranged differently, they have a different internal structure.

Polymorphosis is the ability of a substance to exist in two or more forms with the same chemical composition.

For example, a rare and green variety of beryl is emerald. The most beautiful specimens are found in Colombia. The most famous rubies in the world are found in Myanmar. Fine sapphires are mined in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Well, now, I think that when we buy precious stones for ourselves, we will know about their composition and how they are mined. And we will understand in carats, which is the value of precious stones. And we will also know how minerals are determined, in what ways their hardness is determined, etc...

Types and groups of minerals

Minerals: general characteristics
"Mineral" is a solid body consisting of chemical elements and possessing a number of individual physical and chemical properties. In addition, it should be formed only naturally, under the influence of certain natural processes. Minerals can be formed both by simple substances (native) and complex ones.

There are such processes that contribute to their formation:
Igneous
hydrothermal
Sedimentary
Metamorphogenic
Biogenic
Large aggregates of minerals collected in single systems are called rocks. Therefore, these two concepts should not be confused. Mountain minerals are mined precisely by crushing and processing whole pieces of rocks. The chemical composition of the compounds under consideration can be different and contain a large number of different substances-impurities. However, there is always one main thing that dominates the composition. Therefore, it is it that is decisive, and impurities are not taken into account.
The structure of minerals
The structure of minerals is crystalline. There are several options for lattices with which it can be represented:
cubic
Hexagonal
Rhombic
tetragonal
Monoclinic
Trigonal
Triclinic

These compounds are classified according to the chemical composition of the determining substance.

Types of minerals
A classification that reflects the bulk of a mineral's composition.

Native or simple substances. These are also minerals. For example: gold, iron, carbon in the form of diamond, coal, anthracite, sulfur, silver, selenium, cobalt, copper, arsenic, bismuth and many others.

Halides, which include chlorides, fluorides, bromides. For example: rock salt (sodium chloride) or halite, sylvin, fluorite.

oxides and hydroxides. Formed by oxides of metals and non-metals, that is, their combination with oxygen. This group includes minerals - chalcedony, corundum (ruby, sapphire), magnetite, quartz, hematite, rutile, casematite and others.

Nitrates. For example: potassium and sodium nitrate.

Borates: optical calcite, eremeyite.

Carbonates are salts of carbonic acid. This group includes miners: malachite, aragonite, magnesite, limestone, chalk, marble and others.

Sulfates: gypsum, barite, selenite.

Tungstates, molybdates, chromates, vanadates, arsenates, phosphates are all salts of the corresponding acids that form minerals of various structures. Names - nepheline, apatite and others.

silicates. Silicic acid salts containing the SiO4 group. For example: beryl, feldspar, topaz, garnets, kaolinite, talc, tourmaline, jadeite, lapis lazuli and others.

There are also organic compounds that form whole natural deposits. For example, peat, coal, urkit, calcium oxalates, iron and others. As well as several carbides, silicides, phosphides, nitrides.

native elements

These are minerals that are formed by simple substances.
For example:
Gold in the form of sand and nuggets, ingots
Diamond and graphite - allotropic modifications of the crystal lattice of carbon
Copper
Silver
Iron
Sulfur
Platinum metal group

Often these substances occur in the form of large aggregations with other minerals, pieces of rocks and ores. Extraction and their use in industry are important. They are the basis, the raw material for obtaining materials, from which a variety of household items, structures, jewelry, appliances and much more are subsequently made.

Phosphates, arsenates, vanadates
This group includes rocks and minerals that are predominantly of exogenous origin, that is, they are found in the outer layers of the earth's crust. Only phosphates are formed inside. There are actually quite a lot of salts of phosphoric, arsenic and vanadic acids. But in general, their percentage in the bark is small.

Common crystals that belong to this group:

Apatite
Vivianite
Lindakerite
Rosenite
Carnotite
Pascoite

As already noted, these minerals form rocks of a rather impressive size.

Oxides and hydroxides

This group of minerals includes all oxides, both simple and complex, which are formed by metals, non-metals, intermetallic compounds and transition elements. The total percentage of these substances in the earth's crust is 5%. The only exception that applies to silicates, and not to the group under consideration, is silicon oxide SiO2 with all its varieties.

The most common:
Granite
Magnetite
Hematite
Ilmenite
columbite
Spinel
Lime
Gibbsit
Romaneshit
Holfertite
Corundum (ruby, sapphire)
Bauxite

Carbonates
This class of minerals includes a fairly large variety of representatives, which are also of great practical importance for humans.
Subclasses or groups:
calcite
dolomite
aragonite
malachite
soda minerals
bastnäsite

Each subclass includes from several units to dozens of representatives. In total, there are about a hundred different mineral carbonates.

The most common of them:

marble
limestone
malachite
apatite
siderite
smithsonite
magnesite
carbonatite and others

Some are valued as a very common and important building material, others are used to create jewelry, and others are used in technology. However, all are important.

silicates

The most diverse group of minerals in terms of external forms and number of representatives. This variation is due to the fact that the silicon atoms underlying their chemical structure are able to combine into different types of structures, coordinating several oxygen atoms around them.

So, the following types of structures can be formed:

insular
chain
tape
leafy

These include such as:
topaz
pomegranate
chrysoprase
rhinestone
opal
chalcedony and others.
They are used in jewelry, are valued as durable designs for use in technology.

Important Minerals in Industry:
Datonite
Olivine
Murmanite
Chrysocol
Eudialyte
Beryl

In this article:

To find out the answer to the question of how a stone differs from a mineral, one must take into account the chemical structure and use of these substances. In principle, stones can be called minerals and vice versa, there will be no gross mistake in this. But still, there are several significant differences by which these elements are distinguished and classified.

Principles of difference

To understand the essence of the issue and the differences, you need to consider factors such as:

• Existence of minerals and rocks. This classification is basic in mineralogy. Its essence lies in the fact that minerals are substances that have a homogeneous structure, but rocks or just stones are heterogeneous in composition.
• Minerals are used in jewelry, and stones are more common in industries and construction.
• From the point of view of esotericism, minerals have magical properties, while stones do not have them.
• The cost of stones sometimes differs thousands of times from the price of minerals. Minerals are always more expensive, there are fewer of them in nature, since there are always fewer pure substances than materials with impurities. They look more beautiful, though there are more benefits from ordinary stones or rocks. Rocks allow to produce heat, are used in many branches of energy.
• Natural origin. Minerals are products of nature that are found directly in the soil. Therefore, shellby, rhinestones and other stones made in the laboratory cannot be called minerals, but they can be called stones. Do not fit the category and organic substances, for example, amber, jet.

Ideally, the minerals are really homogeneous, most often there are impurities in the composition of the crystal, which are called defects or inclusions, and the price of the product falls because of this. If a mineral is called a stone, then it is better to select the adjective “precious”, “semi-precious” or “ornamental” for it.

Classification of stones

As such, there is no classification of stones and minerals. Jewelers separate stones according to one criteria, geologists and mineralogists - according to others, sellers - according to the value of the goods. The first attempts to order the stones arose from Kluge, Gyurich - professors of mineralogy.

Bauer brought clarity to this matter in 1986. So, he divided all gems into precious, ornamental and stones of organogenic origin. Moreover, rocks of rocks were not included in this classification. In turn, the classes were divided into orders. But now it is customary to use the classification of V. Ya. Kievlenko, according to which the following groups are distinguished:

1) Jewelry stones. Usually representatives of this category are the most expensive and beautiful:

• i order: diamond, emerald, sapphire, ruby;
• II order: alexandrite, tadiite, sapphire, except for the blue tint, ;
• III order: demantoid, spinel, noble white i, aquamarine, topaz, rosolite, moonstone, red tourmaline;
• IV order: artificial zircon, individual representatives of beryl, turquoise, chrysolite, amethyst, chrysoprase, pyrope, almandine, citrine.

2) Jewelry and ornamental stones.

• i order: rauchtopaz, hematite-bloodstone, ;
• II order: agate, colored chalcedony, cahonite, amazonite, rhodonite, heliotrope, rose quartz, iridescent obsidian, common opal; Labrador; white porous, spars.

3) Ornamental stones or those from which you can make not only jewelry, but also interior items. These include: jasper, ganite, onyx, colored marble, obsidian, fluorite.

Most minerals are formed in the earth in the form of crystals, that is, they crystallize, acquire a regular arrangement of atoms, ions, molecules. Often crystals have a strict shape, facets. And their lattice, that is, the internal structure determines such properties as shape, hardness, density and type of fracture.

But rocks are aggregates that consist of several parts merged together. Their characteristics and structure depend on the conditions of formation, including temperature, the depth of the stone. All stones are classified into groups such as:

• Magmatic. The stones lie deep in the earth (more than 100 kilometers) and come to the surface along with magma during a volcanic eruption.
• Sedimentary. Rocks that form on the surface of the earth under the influence of weather conditions.
• Metamorphic. Stones that are obtained as a result of a change in the original rocks due to tectonic displacements of the earth or the action of temperature.

By the way, this classification may include some minerals, for example, tourmaline, topaz, quartz. And there is also a classification according to such criteria as the physical and chemical composition of the stone. In this case, the scientist distinguishes:

• nuggets (diamonds);
• sulfides;
• halides;
• oxides;
• nitrates, carbonates;
• sulfates and phosphates;
• borates;
• silicates.

About 10-15 stones are suitable for each group. If at least one element from the periodic table predominates in a stone, then a group of specimens will be named after him, for example, if the composition contains arsenic, then the stones will be called arsenates. In total, more than 4 thousand types of stones, including minerals, have been discovered, so the classifications are very voluminous and difficult to remember.

All ways to order stones are of little interest to jewelers, since their main task is to determine the value and processing of a specimen, and not its chemical composition and name. It is the cost that plays a significant role in determining whether it is a stone or a mineral. If a stone, then craftsmen and gemologists decide how precious it is.

Cost of minerals and stones

Sometimes, in order to find out and calculate the value, it is enough to understand the genuine stone or not. But in most cases with transparent crystals and diamonds, the issue is resolved using a table and a “4C” rating:

• Purity (Clarity). This factor indicates impurities in the jewelry. Sometimes they can be hidden with a cut. They are formed during the growth of the mineral in natural conditions. Inclusions in the structure are allowed for a certain localization and size. If it is , then less attention is paid to the inclusions. And if the specimen cannot be processed due to the large amount of impurities, then it is no different from an ordinary stone from the earth.
• Color. Minerals have a varied range of shades. There are instances that have several shades and they are still called minerals, not stones. There are options that change color depending on the lighting.
• Cut. Jewelery is given a shape that emphasizes its brilliance and other virtues.
• Mass (in carats). Products are weighed and evaluated in carats. One carat is equal to 0.02 grams.

Of course, no one evaluates ordinary stones and rocks according to these criteria, since they are not single, but are valued by the total mass. Stones are transported in hundreds of tons, regardless of shape and size. And deposits of minerals and ordinary stones also have different localization. Industries for the extraction of specimens do not intersect with each other, the technique itself and the volume of extraction of specimens may differ.

Although stones and minerals are among the gifts of the Earth, they still differ in content from each other. It is enough that stones are a broader concept that includes minerals. But each kind of stone is used because humanity needs it for different reasons.