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For the past 125 years, textbooks and museum displays have relied on the beauty of tiger's eye to add interest to an often dry description of pseudomorphism, a term that simply means the replacement of one mineral by another while preserving the form of the original mineral. Mineralogists once thought that the stunning play of light emerging from tiger's eye resulted from the infiltration and dissolution of the fibrous mineral crocidolite, a deep blue, asbestos like silicate, by hot waters rich in dissolved silica. Tiger’s eye was viewed as a spectacular form of chalcedony and is often included as a variety of quartz in mineral guides.... (2003) Complete Story
Amber begins as resin exuded from trees millions of years ago. All known deposits of amber come from various tree species which are now extinct. Baltic amber was produced by a tree called Pinites succinifer, a tree sharing many characteristics of the currently living species Pseudolarix. In appearance it would have looked something similar to a pine or spruce tree.... (1998) Complete Story
Andalusite is an unusual stone. It shows flashes of several different earth tones in the same stone. Because of its combination of colors, it has been called "poor man's alexandrite," but it does not look like alexandrite at all. Andalusite has very strong trichroism; if you examine the green stones carefully, you can see green running in one direction and a reddish brown color in the other direction. The third color, yellow, is difficult to see with out a dicroscope. Andalusite was named after Andalusia, Spain where it was first discovered. Today it is mined in Brazil and Sri Lanka..... (1999) Complete Story
The region of pegmatite dikes in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil has been the primary source of gem beryl and several other species of colored gemstones for many years. Rivers have cut places through the dikes and alluvial deposits, called 'cascalho', which are.... (2000) Complete Story
On an excursion in the Alps in 1797, mineralogist, R. J. Hauy discovered some highly vitreous, piezio-electric wedged-shaped crystals that resembled schorl, the dark variety of tourmaline. The incorrect designation, 'vitreous schorl', was used even after axinite was identified as a complicated borate silicate group of minerals. The characteristic axe shape of its crystals gave it its name..... (2000) Complete Story
