A-Z Gems & Minerals w/ Images

[Spotty01]

Thinking of one that starts with W is nothing compared to X, but I succeeded! This ugly thing is xonotlite, less a gem, more a mineral. A hideous mineral, but a mineral nevertheless.

 

[SusanLR]

Thinking of one that starts with W is nothing compared to X, but I succeeded! This ugly thing is xonotlite, less a gem, more a mineral. A hideous mineral, but a mineral nevertheless.

Good luck with Y also.
Xenolith is an X, but, is not a gemstone. A rock within another type of rock. I have a few. This is a good thread. I found this link to elements that make clear quartz into a different variety.
colored varieties of quartz 4am here. Will check back tonight.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

Thinking of one that starts with W is nothing compared to X, but I succeeded! This ugly thing is xonotlite, less a gem, more a mineral. A hideous mineral, but a mineral nevertheless.

I find it pretty. Like snowfall.

 

[Spotty01]

Pretty much anything that starts with the word "yellow" (diamonds, calcite, etc.) comes to mind, but I decided to be a little more creative and go with yttrocerite. It's a variety of fluorite.

 

[SusanLR]

I like it.
Might as well finish it off with Z.
My mother's wedding ring was zircon-(zirconium silicate).
It looks like a diamond, but, zircons come in a lot of colours. Many call them cheap diamonds, but, even today I see rings made from them and they are not cheap.

 

[Spotty01]

Well, we don't necessarily have to stop there. I'm having some fun with this thread and I was thinking we could just start over again from A until we run out of gems and minerals to name.

This is ametrine.

I find it really interesting because it's essentially just amethyst and citrine fused together, hence the name. It's naturally occurring too, which begs the question: how is it formed exactly? I have yet to find any answers to that question, online or otherwise.

 

[Datura]

Bismuth

Bismuth crystals hardly look real to me. The iridescent colours and concentric right angle geometry look more designed than they do formed.

Also...

 

[Kelly Campbell]

malachite and the moonstone

 

[ZebraAutismo]

Cats eye

 

[Acorn_Elf]

Dimorphite.

 

[Spotty01]

Ekanite

I don't really like that color, it brings to mind sewage for some reason. Here's a fun, less gross, fact though. Like torbernite, it's one of the few minerals to be naturally radioactive.

 

[Spotty01]

Bismuth

Bismuth crystals hardly look real to me. The iridescent colours and concentric right angle geometry look more designed than they do formed.

I got a piece of bismuth that looks like that one a few weeks ago at a gem & mineral show. They're really beautiful and look like some sort of extraterrestrial thing to me.

Also...

I take it you're a fan of SU?

The end of that episode makes me tear up every time; I really hope she makes a comeback.

 

[Acorn_Elf]

Ekanite

I don't really like that color, it brings to mind sewage for some reason. Here's a fun, less gross, fact though. Like torbernite, it's one of the few minerals to be naturally radioactive.

I like the color. It reminds me of a Swamp or bog.

 

[Spotty01]

I like the color. It reminds me of a Swamp or bog.

Most swamps around where I live are filled with algae of a lime green color, and thus, nothing like ekanite, but I guess it varies from place to place.

I've just been fond of that dark brownish green hue, and the little... stuff (possibly another mineral) makes it even worse.

 

[Acorn_Elf]

Frankdicksonite.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

Cats eye[/QU
OTE]

 

[ZebraAutismo]

Grr why can't I insert images.

 

[Spotty01]

Grr why can't I insert images.

Are you using Google to find images? If so, then you click on "view original image" for the one you want to add and copy the URL from the page that comes up. And voila!

At least that's what works for me.

 

[SusanLR]

I had a Bismuth piece that was very colourful and I put it in a flower pot for decoration. It soon turned plain grey.
It must have been the lab formed variety.
Here's how it is formed in the lab:
The colour is from a thin film of bismuth(III) oxide that forms on the surface if the crystals are formed in air. At the elevated temperatures used to melt bismuth, the oxide forms quite quickly.
It went from this:

 

[SusanLR]

To looking like these raw crystals: