Photo By Cosmopolitan UK, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84773232
This weekend international pop star Taylor Swift is playing two concert dates in Cincinnati. As with anyplace Taylor plays, this is a big deal, and there has been a great deal of excitement about the concerts. The demand for these tickets is high – one of our friend’s kids got hold of some tickets at face value and sold one of them for two thousand dollars, although I’ve heard stories of tickets being resold on the secondary market for much more.
Examples of Smoky Quartz Points on Sale at Georarities this week in honor of Taylor Swift playing Cincinnati.
Since this is the biggest thing to hit Cincinnati since sliced bread was invented, we’ve decided to show our support of Ms. Swift’s Cincinnati detour by offering Smoky Quartz Points for only $7 each. You must visit our store in-person between June 30th and July 9th.
We may not have the sheer crystal dress Taylor wore to the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards, but we have plenty of cool stuff that Taylor wishes she did have! Drop by our store to pick up your smoky quartz point and check out all the cool other crystal we have as well.
What is that crystal? You know the one I’m talking about! Sometimes it’s blue, purple, yellow, green, clear or some mix swirl of any or all of those colors. Sometimes it lights up blue or green or purple when you shine that invisible light, ultraviolet light.
It usually looks like little rectangles maybe lying atop a druzy quartz surface, or on top of calcite or other minerals. Sometimes it’s botryoidal. It’s popular when carved into an eight sided shape that’s perfect for playing Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s carved into standalone points out of mega crystals looking like the kind of witchy or metaphysical talisman you would expect to have mystical or spiritual or otherworldly powers.
Fluorite, yeah that’s its name. Named after the Latin word fluere meaning “to Flow“, it has lent its name to the term for when a crystal exposed to ultraviolet light, seems to change color through florescence.
Technically speaking fluorite is a halide mineral that is the crystal form of CaF2, and has a hardness between that of quartz and calcite. It is colorless when pure, but with impurities it takes on the many different colors it is known for. Besides being beautiful and used in jewelry and decoration it also is used industrially to produce smelting flux, certain glasses and enamels, and as a source for hydrofluoric acid. It also has optical properties making it valuable as a lens in microscopes, telescopes and especially where far-ultraviolet and mid-infrared spectrums are used.
Fluorite has the nickname “the most colorful mineral in the world” because of the wide range of colors imparted by different impurities. Fluorite can appear in every color in the rainbow as well as white, black, and colorless.
Fluorite is one of my favorite minerals. One of the prized specimens in my collection is a Chinese (insert location information ) example of blue fluorite floating on a druzy quartz wing of matrix material with smaller blue fluorite crystals all over the piece from Xinyang, QianZhou, Fuhian, China. I acquired the specimen some years ago from an estate and some thing about the statuesque shape, the colors, and the general positioning of the largest pieces cubic blue fluorite looking like a pair of eyes on some alien cephalopod, staring back at me seized on my imagination.
Beautiful cubic clear translucent fluorite specimen on matrix
By Ed Uthman from Houston, TX, USA – Fluorite, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84732356
Fluorite crystals (blue) with Pyrite (gold-coloured), photographed at the National history museum in Milan, Italy
By Giovanni Dall’Orto – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5 it, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2084961
Fluorite from Hardin County, Illinois. A slice has been cut from a large Illinois fluorite crystal, then polished on both sides, to show the incredible zoning inside the crystal, tracking its growth like rings on a tree! Note the band of light teal blue that formed as the solution changed inside the pocket while the crystal was growing.
By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10129997
Green fluorite twinned crystals on matrix found from Diana Maria mine, Rogerley quarry, Stanhope, County Durham, England
By Ivar Leidus – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101496476
Yellow Fluorite from the Valzergues Mine, Aveyron, Midi-Pyrénées France
By Didier Descouens – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7526078
Fluorite from Elmwood mine, Carthage, Central Tennessee Ba-F-Pb-Zn District, Smith County, Tennessee, USA. A fine, translucent fluorite crystal perched on the edge of a shard of matrix sparkling with microcrystals of dolomite. Fluorite is complete on front, cleaved on back where removed from pocket wall.
By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10131606
The other night, I was discussing Eddie Murphy with a friend. Murphy, whose career has been up and down over the past 10 years had a bit of a comeback in 2019 with the film Dolemite is My Name. This is a comedic-bio-pic Netflix file is about blaxploitation film-maker Rudy Ray Moore. Nothing about the movie, except part of the name, Dolemite (which actually refers to a film that Rudy Ray Moore, played by Murphy, made in the 1970s of the same name) has anything to do with geology. But once I started thinking about dolomite, I went down the rabbit hole.
I thought I knew what dolomite. After all, I have some of it in my collection. It’s that creamy mineral you find in Indiana right? It turns out the history of the name and it applies to is a bit torturous and complicated. The name dolomite begins in the 18th century. A french geologist named Dieudonné Sylvain Guy Tancrède de Gratet de Dolomieu usually known as Déodat de Dolomieu, discovered in the old city of Rome, and later during a visit to the Alps of northeastern Italy, a calcareous rock which, did not effervesce when exposed to weak hydrochloric acid. This was unlike limestone. Dolomieu published this discovery in the journal Journal de Physique in March of 1792. The calcareous mineral he described was eventually named after him, as dolomite. In addition, a mountain range in northeastern Italy, part of the southern limestone alps, was named The Dolomites, also after Dolomieu.
Ohio Dolostone
Photo By James St. John – Put-in-Bay Dolomite over Tymochtee Dolomite (Upper Silurian; South Bass Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, USA) 6, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82969360
But what exactly was it that Dolomieu discovered? Limestone had been used as a building material for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians used limestone to build the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx. The Maya of ancient Mexico used it for carving. The ancient Athenians used it to build the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens during its golden age. The Romans used it to build the Colosseum in Rome. Jerusalem stone (limestone) was used to build ancient Jerusalem from mines located near the neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. But this new mineral, despite some similarities clearly wasn’t limestone. The stronger resistance to HCL proved that.
Both limestone and the new mineral, it turns out, were typically sedimentary carbonate minerals. Limestone is typically composed of calcite and aragonite, both forms of crystallized CaCO3. The new mineral turned out to be an anhydrous form of CaMg(CO3)2, and it turns out that the magnesium makes all the difference. For a long time the new mineral, named dolomite in Dolomieu’s honor, was applied to both the crystal and rock formations of the mineral. Confusion about the term Dolomite, which now referred to three distinct things, persisted until 1948 when geologists changed the name of the rock formation of calcium magnesium carbonate to dolostone. Dolomite from that point on only refers to the mineral and not the rock formation. The “Dolomites” is used to refer to the mountain range.
Sphalerite crystals atop sucrosic dolostone from Sandusky County, Ohio
Photo by James St. John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/31282767801/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101721070
Even though the mineral was discovered in Europe, it is found across the world include Spain, China, Brazil, and Ohio among other places. Spain used to be the source of the finest dolomite crystals, but now Brazil and China also produce world class specimens. Dolomite also appears as a bed on which showier crystals display – see the spakling example below of Dioptase from Tsumeb mine, Namibia, formerly of my collection.
Beautiful example of dioptase with calcite crystals on dolomite from the Tsumeb mine, Otjikoto region, Namibia. This piece was in our inventory previously and is now sold.
Click here to check out our selection of Dolomite for sale.
Main photo by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10148460
Everybody loves the color purple, a color has an old association with royalty. The dye known Tyrian purple was a luxury item. Created from the secretions of a certain sea snail it was famous for the purple color not fading over time but in fact become me even brighter and more beautiful. Alexander the great and his successors or the color purple is a symbol of royal authority. They say the King Solomon decorated the ancient Jewish temple of Jerusalem with purple, and the roman Republic the color was restricted to high ranking members of the elite. During the time of the Roman empire, production of the color would be nationalized, and use of it would be restricted to the emperor, giving rise to the phrase “raised to the purple” meaning becoming emperor.
It’s no surprise that the love of the color purple resists even today. Some of the most beloved crystals purple in color. In this article we will list the number of the more popular than commonly found purple crystals and stones.
Greek or Roman; Intaglio of Nike on Amethyst
By This file was donated to Wikimedia Commons as part of a project by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. See the Image and Data Resources Open Access Policy, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60424477
Perhaps the most popular purple crystal is Amethyst, a lilac colored variety of quartz. The name derives from ancient Greek and refers to a belief that the stone protected its owner from becoming drunk. The crystal was often worn by the ancient Greeks, and make large drinking vessels from it to protect the drinker from drunkenness. The purple color in amethyst quartz comes from impurities of iron and occasionally other transition metals and irradiation. The ancient Egyptians and romans used amethyst as a gemstone, and often carved it in the intaglio style. The majority of amethyst today comes from Brazil and Uruguay. Amethyst can be found in crystals ranging from very small to very large, and it will oftentimes form large crystals, crystal clusters, and even geodes.
Rare, impressively attractive, purple-colored mineral charoite is only known from a relatively small area in Siberia.
By James St. John – Charoitite (charoite-dominated potassic metasomatite) (Early Cretaceous, 115-120 Ma; mine in the headwaters of the Davan-Ditmara streams area, south of Olekminsk, Yakutia, Siberia, Russia) 4, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84501150
Charoite is a rare, usually translucent silicate mineral ranging in color from lavender to purple. It does not form individual crystals and is only found in Siberia.
Beautiful, floater crystals of lepidolite, Minas Gerais, Brazil
By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10138061+
Pink two purple and color, lithium rich Lepidolite is a typically soft mica mineral. Only when lepidolite is associated to hard quartz can it be cut and polished for use as a gemstone.
Green and Purple Fluorite
By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK – Green and Purple Fluorite, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64153750
Fluorite comes in many colors but purple is the most common. Some of the best examples originated in China, Morrocco, and Illinois. Fluorite can be in any number of shapes, including cubes, octohedrons, and botryoidal forms. Oftentimes Fluorite will glow under ultraviolet light (i.e. fluoresce). Fluorite is popular with collectors as it’s usually reasonably priced because it’s fairly common.
Pretty purple sugilite on a matrix of bladed barite crystals
By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10129877
Sugilite is an uncommon grape jelly colored cyclosilicate mineral. Is often used a gemstone, and some people believe that it has spiritual healing powers.
By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86319528
Grape agate is an uncommon botryoidal mineral. Most of it is purple in color, although we have seen blue varieties. It is neither an agate nor a chalcedony. It is instead spherical nodules of amethyst that formed around seed crystals and which interlinks as it grows. It is beautiful but expensive, but originates in Indonesia.
By Didier Descouens – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9409630
Tanzanite is a beautiful crystal that can appear purple, blue, or burgundy depending on the orientation of the crystals. It is named after Tanzania, in which it is found. It’s a variety of zoisite that contain vanadium.
If you live in Ohio and want to get rich finding Emeralds then forget it. Your best bet for that is to move to the Asheville, NC. Our state just doesn’t have the Geology necessary for that sort of gemstone to be present. It’s true people do find gold and diamonds (six of those have been found in Ohio, not including those found in jewelry stores) in Ohio, but those are travelers that arrived courtesy of glaciers and deposited in glacial sedimentary deposits.
But just because you can’t fill a jewelry shop from our geology doesn’t mean that Ohio isn’t rich in crystal treasure. Our state is blessed with minerals that are used industrially and helped turn the state into an Industrial powerhouse. It also is a source of beautiful minerals perfect for a collection or as a display piece (Celestite, I am looking at you!) And don’t get me started talking about fossils! Cincinnati is famous for its rich troves of Ordovician era fossils on the Cincinnati Arch. You know where to go if you want a Trilobite.
Since most locals aren’t aware of our state’s Geology, let alone that we have a geology, or if we have one, where somebody may have misplaced it, how much it’s worth and whether you can trade it to rent Top Gun: Maverick on Amazon, we are presenting a curated list of the crystals and minerals found in the Buckeye state.
Photo credit for image above: Photo By James St. John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/33229612163/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96284794
Calcite
Sunlit Silurian calcite from Put-in-Bay in Ohio on Lake Erie.
Photo By James St. John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/50588186197/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96284996
Calcite is found throughout Ohio in different forms as granular aggregates in black shale in eastern and central Ohio, and as crystal and granular aggregates in Western Ohio.
The name calcite comes from a Greek word meaning lime. This comes from its chemical component, Calcium Carbonate, which sometimes is mistakenly known as “lime.” Calcite is known in more than 300 forms of crystals. The scalenohedral crystals of Calcite, one of its most common varieties, ordinarily are known as “dogtooth spar” or “dogtooth calcite” because of their resemblance to a dog’s canine tooth. Another variety, transparent rhombohedral calcite, is used in optical equipment. Although they are not specific varieties of calcite, stalactites, stalagmites and other formations found in caverns are made of calcite.
Calcite is one of the most common minerals, making up about 4% by weight of the Earth’s crust. Calcite is common as vein fillings in many rocks in western and central Ohio. Silurian dolomites in northwestern Ohio yield clusters of large crystals ranging from clear to dark brown. Many have a golden color.
Crystals and granular aggregates in cavities and fractures of dolostones and limestones in western Ohio; granular aggregates commonly form veins in dolostone concretions and less commonly in ironstone concretions from black shales in central and eastern Ohio; more rare as an efflorescence.
Calcite (CaCO3) is a soft carbonate mineral that occurs in various colors, including white, yellow, brown, gray, black, and pink, and also can be colorless. Calcite is a common mineral that occurs primarily in limestone and dolostone, occasionally in concretions and rarely as an efflorescence.
The Romans made concrete by mixing lime and volcanic ash to create a pozzolanic reaction. If this was mixed with volcanic tuff and placed under seawater, the seawater hydrated the lime in an exothermic reaction that solidified the mixture.
Aragonite
Vug with aragonite crystals in arenaceous, ferruginous, fossiliferous limestone from Ohio
Photo By James St. John – Vug with aragonite crystals in arenaceous, ferruginous, fossiliferous limestone (Vinton Member, Logan Formation, Lower Mississippian; Mt. Calvary Cemetery Outcrop – Rt. 13 roadcut, Heath, east-central Ohio, USA) 3, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82971990
With a name that sounds like a heroic character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, but originates from the territory of Aragon in Spain, aragonite is one of the three most common forms of calcium carbonate. Its crystal lattice differs from calcite, one of the other common forms of calcium carbonate. It has a host of industrial uses. Aragonite has been found in Coshocton County.
Celestite
Crystal Cave is a small cave in Put-in-Bay on Lake Erie in Ohio touted as the world’s largest geode. An abundance of large, well-formed crystals of celestite cover the walls. The cave was originally mined for its strontium content, but enough nice crystals still remain to keep the site open as a show cave.
Photo by James St. John – Celestite (Crystal Cave, South Bass Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, USA) 16, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82969277
A soft sulfate mineral ore of strontium, in fact being the most common mineral that contains strontium. Celestite derived strontium is used industrially in fireworks, ceramic magnets, and toothpaste
Ohio is famous for having some of the best celestite deposits in the world. The mineral is found in 11 counties. The northwestern regions of Ohio amid the Findlay Arch produce celestite ranging in color from white to pale blue. The area of Serpent Mound southwestern Ohio also produces some celestite due to an unusual geological occurrence. South Bass Island is a huge vug filled with very large celestite crystals.
Quartz
Close-up of a Monroe County, Ohio geode with sphalerite, barite, dolomite and quartz.
Photo by James St. John – Geode with sphalerite, barite, dolomite, and quartz (Monroe County, Ohio, USA) 2, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84692026
What can’t you not say about quartz? It is a hard silicate in the form of silicon dioxide. It’s useful in glassmaking, watchmaking, ceramics, metal casting, electronics, and the petroleum industry. But the enduring love it receives is because of it’s beauty and variety: rose quartz, lavender quartz, blue quartz, rutilated quartz, citrine, amethyst, enhydro quartz, prasiolite, ametrine and a variety of shapes including points, needles, and clusters.
In Ohio, quartz is found in flint beds in Coshocton, Licking, and Muskingum Counties; in Adams and Highland Counties; in septarian limestone concretions in the central portion of the state; and loose in streambeds and creeks in the Southeast.
Fluorite
An example of Ohio Fluorite from Stoneco Auglaize quarry (Maumee Stone County quarry), Junction, Paulding County, Ohio.
A 1.2 cm colorless cube with well-centered, distinct, rich purple color “phantom” inside. The crystal has very sharp faces and excellent gemminess. It sits upon a small amount of Dolostone matrix
Photo by Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10148353
Fluorite is a another name for calcium fluoride, a halide ore mineral of fluorine. It’s has several industrials uses including as a flux for removing impurities in the manufacture of steel and in the production of fluorine gas which itself is used in the refining of uranium.
While fluorite is found across the world, the quality and largest quantities are mined out of Europe and North America. In Ohio fluorite is found in 19 counties. Typically cubic crystals found in dolostones in northwestern Ohio particularly along the edges of the Findlay Arch and occasionally in the Serpent Mound area.
Some fluorite is UV reactive, fluorescing under exposure. Because of this property, it and it’s compounds are used to manufacture synthetic crystals with applications in laser and special UV and infrared optics.
Dolomite
Ohio Dolostone. In the past Dolomite was used to refer to both the mineral and the rock. Dolomite is now used to refer to the mineral and dolostone refers to sedimentary rock whose primary content is dolomite.
Photo By James St. John – Put-in-Bay Dolomite over Tymochtee Dolomite (Upper Silurian; South Bass Island, Lake Erie, Ohio, USA) 6, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82969360
What relationship does Ohio have with a nineteenth century french geologist? The answer in one word is Dolomite! Named after Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, Dolomite is found in over 19 Ohio counties. Dolomite differs from limestone in that it contains both calcium and magnesium.
More well known as an Indiana mineral, especially the Corydon area, this calcium magnesium carbonate occurs in small crystals in western Ohio and along the Huron river among other areas.
Dolomite has industrial uses including as a source of magnesium salts like magnesia and by builders as structural and ornamental stone.
The term dolomite used to refer both to the mineral dolomite and dolostone (a sedimentary rock of which is made primarily of dolomite).
Barite
Fluorite and barite from Marblehead Peninsula Ohio
Photo By James St. John – Fluorite and barite (quarry in Marblehead Peninsula, far-northern Ohio, USA), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40022633
Found in over 26 counties in Ohio, this Barium Sulfate mineral often associated with calcite and other minerals is often white or colorless but can also have light blues, greys, yellows or browns. In the central and eastern Ohio black shale formations barite is found in concretions such as limestone, ironstone and pyrite. In the northwestern and southwestern Ohio crystalline or granular barite can be found in fractures and cavitiesof dolostones (dolomite sedimentary rock).
Barite is the primary ore for barium, and has varied industrial uses including paper, paint and glass manufacture as well medical radiology (as a dye) and in oil drilling.
Barites crystals found in Ohio can sometimes be massive in size.
Malachite
Malachite – sadly from Zaire and not Ohio
Photo By JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/) – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7515677
Typically found in botryoidal, stalagmitic, or fibrous masses, beautiful green malachite is collectible, and displayable.
It was a little hard to believe that malachite is found in Ohio, but according to the state it actually is present. Since it’s a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral it obviously needs copper to be present to form, and I did find a reference to a copper mine in Cuyahoga county.
Pyrite
Pyrite
Photo By James St. John – Pyrite snake concretion (Ohio Shale, Upper Devonian; creek cut in Ross County, southern Ohio, USA) 8, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84692435
Iron Pyrite, commonly known as “fool’s gold”, is metallic iron sulfide mineral found in over 88 Ohio counties, typically in Devonian or Pennsylvanian shales. Pyrite has been used as an ore for sulfur and a source of iron.
The most common sulfide mineral, pyrite can form form in extremely well-crystallized examples of cubes, pyritohedrons, and octahedrons.
Sphalerite
Sphalerite crystals atop sucrosic dolostone from Sandusky County, Ohio
Photo by James St. John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/jsjgeology/31282767801/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101721070
Sphalerite is a sulfide mineral that is an ore of zinc, cadmium, gallium, germanium, and indium. It has a wide variety of colors including light/dark brown, red-brown, yellow, red, green, light blue, black, and colorless. It occurs in the Findlay Arch area, near Serpent Mound, and in Eastern Ohio.
Smithsonite
Illustrative example of smithsonite – sadly, not from Ohio. This example is from the Kelley Mine in Soccorro County, New Mexico.
Photo by Bureau of Mines – http://libraryphoto.cr.usgs.gov/cgi-bin/show_picture.cgi?ID=ID.%20BOM%20Mineral%20Specimens%20016, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1825549
Smithsonite is named after English geologist and chemist James Smithson. Also known as zinc spar, this form of mineral zinc carbonate is a variably colored trigonal mineral.
Special Mention: Fossils
While not minerals, it would be unforgivable to not mention Ohio’s rich treasure trove of minerals. The greater Cincinnati area (which includes parts of northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana) sits atop what is known as the Cincinnati Arch, the eroded remains of a mountain range from Michigan to Alabama that was thrust up by collision of two ancient continents. The arch sank beneath a series of shallow inland seas filled with marine life ending up as deposits of fossils in what is known to geologists as the Cincinnatian Epoch.
The region is famous for a wide variety of marine fossils, but particularly Trilobites, a now extinct member of the arthropod family.
Example of Ohio Eldredgeops rana fossil
Photo by Daderot – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83993913
Graftonoceras – limonite-stained external mold of nautiloid in dolostone
Photo By James St. John – Graftonoceras fossil nautiloid (Lockport Dolomite, Middle Silurian; Coldwater, southern Mercer County, western Ohio, USA), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36833417
Jade is a beautiful and highly desirable material. It’s valued for the fabulous and magnificent works of art that are created from it, and for the deeper meanings people attach to it. In different periods of Chinese history Jade was associated with heaven, as a symbol of authority. Confucius used jade into a metaphor for virtue, kindness, wisdom, justice, civility, music, sincerity, truth, Heaven and Earth. But sometimes, its not the cultural symbolism or monetary value of an object which is, but the personal sentiment. This story is one such example.
The story begins with the December 7th, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which brought the United States into the Second World War. Through the first six months of the war the United States suffered a series of defeats – in the Philippines, Wake Island, and the Java Sea. Seeking a way to achieve a victory to raise American morale – and deal a blow to Japanese morale, a plan was conceived whereby the Japanese home islands would be bombed by U.S. Army Air Force B25-B bombers loaded onto and launched from U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.
The bombers were loaded onto the carriers Hornet and Enterprise on April 1st, 1942. The aircraft were launched 10 hours ahead of schedule on April 18th when the carrier task force was sighted by a Japanese ship. The aircraft dropped their bomb loads over Tokyo and other Japanese cities, causing minor damage to their targets but inflicting a major shock to the Japanese military and government. The consequence of launching earlier was the planes were launched 200 miles further from Japan than planned, making them unable to reach the landing bases prepared by Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Chinese forces – an ally against Japan. 15 of the 16 planes managed to reach the Chinese coast thanks to a lucky tailwind, the 16th plane reaching the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, none of the places reached safe Chinese bases, instead running out of fuel in areas occupied by or threatened by Japanese troops. Chinese locals and military forces helped hide and rescue the American crews. The Chinese, who had already been at war with Japan for years before this, and had been taking blows from the Japanese were greatly appreciate of the counterblow delivered by the Americans. One of the rescued pilots, Lt. Travis Hoover, was presented with a gift by Mr. Tung-Sheng Liu, a Chinese district commissioner who also acted as an interpreter and guide for Hoover’s crew, helping them reach safety. The gift was a delicately carved piece of Jade. Today, this Jade is located and on display with artifacts from the Doolittle Raid at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, located on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
The image for this post shows the U.S. Army Air Force crew of the North American B-25B Mitchell bomber (s/n 40-2292, Lt. Travis Hoover). They had left the aircraft carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) as No. 2 plane of the “Doolittle Raid” on 18 April 1942 and bombed Tokyo. After running out of fuel the plane crashed near Ningpo, China. Mr. Tung-Sheng Liu (劉同聲, third from right in white jacket) stands with the crew of Lt. Travis Hoover. He helped these men escape capture following the Doolittle Raid. He later immigrated to the United States and was one of four individuals names as honorary Doolittle Raiders.
Image Credit: By USAF – National Museum of the U.S. Air Force photo 100907-F-1234S-001, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11422843
Herkimer County, lying north of the Mohawk river in upstate New York, is known for two things: being the one of two production sites for the Remington Arms Company, and being the source of Herkimer Diamonds. Herkimer diamonds are actually unusual, naturally double terminated transparent quartz, whose clarity and natural faceting has led to the diamond nickname that range from colorless to smoky. These unusual crystals have eighteen faces – six on each end, and six in the middle. and were discovered in dolomite outcroppings by early settlers mining the dolomite, or plowing fields. Any number of inclusions, from microscopic to visible, can occur in the crystal including: salt, water, dolomite, liquid petroleum, calcite, pyrite, sphalerite, and even quartz. While similar naturally double terminated and faceted quartz can be found in other locations, only the material from Herkimer County is called Herkimer Diamonds.
The native Mohawks knew of and valued the crystals as well, and collected them from stream sediment using the material for tools or trading with other tribes. Eventually, “Herkimers” were supplanted among the Mohawk by glass beads brought by traders and settlers.
Herkimer Diamond
By Maatpublishing – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75917823
It’s obvious that Herkimer diamonds are named after their place of origin, Herkimer County, but less obvious is their to the American Revolution, and through that to pop culture. Herkimer County, you see, was named after General Nicholas Herkimer, an American Patriot Militia leader of the American Revolution. An American born grandson of German Palatine immigrant Georg Herchheimer, he grew up in the Mohawk Valley region speaking English, German, and Mohawk. He acquired the rank of Captain in the local militia fighting in the region during the Seven Years war, a global struggle between France and England and their allies known locally in North American as the French and Indian War. He held some slaves, not unlike other settlers and their Mohawk neighbors in the region.
Herkimer’s fame derives from his actions during the siege of Fort Stanwix during the Saratoga Campaign of the American Revolution. By this time promoted to Brigadier General, his force was ambushed on August 6, 1777 by British regulars, Tory Militia and Mohawk warriors while marching to relieve Fort Stanwix. The engagement, later known as the Battle of Oriskany was one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolution. With his horse shot, and wounded in the leg, General Herkimer directed the battle while propped up against a tree, rallying his two times to prevent panicked retreats. When his force withdrew his leg was dressed and he was carried home in a litter, but the wound became infected. The decision to amputate the leg was delayed ten days and the surgeon who was performed it was inexperienced because the brigade surgeon had himself been wounded in the fighting at Oriskany. The operation went poorly and General Herkimer bled to death.
Oil Painting titled “Herkimer at the Battle of Oriskany“
By Frederick Coffay Yohn – Painting at the public library of Utica, New York. Images widely available on the web., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11839374
In addition to being a bona fide war hero, General Herkimer had his own Hollywood moment. Walter Edmond’s 1936 novel Drums Along The Mohawk was adapted into the 1939 John Ford film of the same name. General Herkimer is a character in both works. He is portrayed in the film by actor Roger Imhof, alongside the leads Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert. Not too shabby for war hero whose great claim to fame was 244 years ago!
Actor Roger Imhof who portrayed General Nicholas Herkimer in the file Drums Along the Mohawk, seen here in a role in the file Red Lights Ahead
By film screenshot (Chesterfield Motion Pictures Corporation) – https://archive.org/details/red_lights_ahead, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26512115
Movie poster for Drums Along the Mohawk. Note Roger Imhof’s name listed in the lower right corner of the playbill.
In a tragic footnote, the general’s younger brother militia Captain Johan Jost Herkimer was also at the Battle of Oriskany when the general’s column was ambushed – but with the other side. Johan Jost was a loyalist who supported the king during the revolution and was a Captain in the Tory militia.
Topmost photo By James St. John – https://www.flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/50717613196/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=97564957
Of all the variety of minerals and crystals, perhaps the most beloved and widely collected is quartz. Named from the old Saxon word querklufterz meaning ‘cross vein ore’, it is popular with collectors, healers, artists, craftsmen, and people just looking for beautiful jewelry or items to display in their home. Quartz has something for everyone: a startling variety of colors; beautiful geometrically precise crystals; crystals ranging in size from druzy to monumental; strange and fantastical interior minerals such as hematite. Quartz is also the most abundant mineral on our planet.
Pure quartz is a colorless form of silicon dioxide, but there is a wide variety of both colored quartz and minerals that are not commonly understood to be a variety of quartz, such as amethyst, citrine, praseolite, chalcedony, and herkimer diamonds. Many of these varieties derive their color from impurities. Amethyst, for example owes its purple color to a combination of iron impurities trapped in the crystal along with holes in its structure from missing elections. Gray quartz similarly has missing electrons, but instead of iron impurities, it has aluminum impurities. Aside from color, quartz is usually grouped based on the size of the size of individual crystals or grains. If the individual crystal is too small to see using the naked eye, then the crystal is referred to as being cryptocrystalline quartz. If you can use your unaided eye to see the crystal, then it is classified as macrocrystalline quartz.
Rose quartz is a popular macrocrystalline form of quartz best know for its solid masses, beautiful glassy luster and translucent, even, milky pink color. The source of the color is still not well understood. One theory argues that it is due minor impurities such as titanium, manganese or even colloidal gold. The other theory argues that color comes from microscopic mineral fibers of dumortierite inside the rose quartz. Some examples exhibit asterism – a star effect when looking at the mineral from a particular angle when light is shone upon it. In general, rose quartz does not form crystals like you see with other forms of quartz.
Its delicate color has inspired art in other mediums including this glass vase on at the Chrysler Museum, and has its own color listing in the Pantone color library. Man has worked with the material back into antiquity. Beads made of the material have been discovered in the near east. The Chinese, particularly during the Qing dynasty, used the material for carvings. It was crafted in Latin America, and India as well.
Rose Quartz Vase
18th Century, Chinese, Qing Dynasty
Rose Quartz and Gold Double Bird Pendant 8th–12th century Coclé (Macaracas)
From Panama
Dagger (Jambiya) 18th century Indian, Mughal
Steel, ivory (walrus), silver, ruby, rose quartz
Rose quartz was believed by the Romans, Egyptians and Greeks to be a useful talisman, and the Romans carved it into ownership seals. It was known during medieval times as the love stone, and the Chinese valued it’s properties in the practice of Feng Shui. Given the strong and ancient beliefs that the stone had special properties , it is no surprise that a strong literature has arisen around the material in modern times discussing metaphysical, healing, Reiki, or other spiritual properties of the material.
Ring, filigree with rose quartz
Greek or Roman, from Cyprus
Rose Quartz continues to inspire people, even in modern times. It’s a name given to a character in the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe. In the show, Steven is half-human and half “gem”, a type of ageless alien warrior that project human like forms from the gemstones in their core. Steven inherits his half “gem” lineage from his full-gem mother, Rose Quartz.
Rose Quartz (right), Steven Universe’s mother from the Cartoon Network show “Steven Universe”
By Hilary Florido, Katie Mitroff and Rebecca Sugar (authors); Cartoon Network / Time Warner (copyright owners) – Own screenshot, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50775788
Rose quartz is found today in southern Africa (Madagascar, South Africa, and Namibia) as well as Brazil (Bahia and Minas Gerais) and interestingly, South Dakota.
There is a second variety of quartz sometimes grouped under the name rose quartz, but also referred to as pink crystalline quartz or crystalline rose quartz or even just pink quartz. This variety is much rarer, forms beautiful crystals and the best examples hail from the Minas Gerais region of Brazil.
For your own rose crystal display piece or healing stone check out Georarities’ selection of rose quartz crystals for sale.
Flower holder with pomegranate
18th Century, Chinese, Qing Dynasty
Snuff Bottle with Floral Design late 18th century China, Qing Dynasty
In northeastern Arizona lies a region named El Desierto Pintado or The Painted Desert by Spanish explorers. In its midst is a 346 square region that is the Petrified Forest National Park. Part of the late Triassic Chinle Formation (which is formed of mudstone, siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate deposited into channels and floodplains of a large river system) the park is part of a broader area famous for petrified fallen trees from forests that date to the Late TriassicEpoch, about 225 million years ago. Pushed upwards starting around 60 million years ago the upper layers were eroded away by wind and rain exposing fossils. A humans in the area only began about 8000 years ago, when migrants entered the region eventually growing corn, and building pit houses and pueblos. Changing climate conditions eventually drove the descendants of these settlers out of the area and into the Hopi and Navajo regions.
Early Tourist Guide for the Petrified National Forest
Ever since the early 20th century, scientists have been unearthing and examining the rich fossils deposit in the Painted Forest. Giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large amphibians, and others have been discovered here, but the most famous fossils are those of plants of the Late Triassic Mesozoic period including ferns, lycophytes, cycads, gingkoes and others. At the time these plants and creatures lived, the park was part of the super-continent Pangaea, and located much further south, near the equator in fact, and the climate of the region was humid and sub-tropical, far different from the barren and arid deserts of today.
A view at Petrified Forest National Park, a site managed by the National Park Service in Arizona.
By AndrewKPepper – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83635779
The most famous of plant fossils and the namesake of the park is petrified wood. These fossils were created when downed trees accumulated in river channels flooded by tropical rainstorms became buried by sediment containing volcanic ash from nearby volcanic that erupted periodically. The quick burial of these plants in an ash mineral rich, low oxygen environment proved ideal for fossilization as low oxygen inhibits the decay of organic matter and deters the presence of many hungry critters (from bacteria on up). Over time silica (silicon dioxide) from the ash dissolved into the water began to form quartz crystals (also a form of silicon dioxide) on edge of the logs eventually replacing the organic matter as it slowly decayed. Iron oxide and other substances in the ash created different colors in quartz minerals creating over a very long period of time beautiful, (sometime brilliantly) colorful plant fossils. There are rare specimens of green petrified wood fossils that also stand out, the green coming from chromium. These tree fossils are sometimes monumental in size, feet in diameter and sometimes the length of (broken) tree logs.
By Brian W. Schaller – Own work, FAL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29628344
Green Petrified Wood from Holbrook, Navajo County, Arizona, USA Size: 3.8 x 2.1 x 1.6 cm. The bark on both sides is very well preserved. This is a polished slice from petrified tree limb
By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10175980
Green Petrified Wood fromSize: 4.0 x 2.0 x 1.5 cm. The bark on both sides is very well preserved. You can see the distinct knots, where smaller limbs were once attached and the corrugated nature of the bark.
ByRob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10176074
This fossilization process typically preserves details of the external shape and structure of the woody material including sometimes the bark, but in a small number of specimens the fossilization process penetrated into and preserved the cellular structure of the plant or animal bone. Paleologists and Paleobotanists can sometimes study these special fossils under a microscope to understand their cellular structure and this has brought a wealth of knowledge about species with no known relatives alive on the surface of the earth today.
At least nine species of extinct tree have been identified among the park’s fossils some growing up to 9 feet in diameter and up to 200 feet high. Perhaps the most famous of all is a conifer tree named Araucarioxylon arizonicum that grew from the Early Permian period through the Late Triassic. It’s closest living relatives are the Monkey Puzzle Tree and the the Norfolk Island Pine tree both of which only live in the southern hemisphere.
Artistic reconstruction of the plant Araucarioxylon arizonicum according to the descriptions given for the species from its Triassic fossil remains. The maximum height estimated for the species is 60 meters and its diameter is 60 centimeters. The columnar trunk with monopodic branching is observed and the lateral branches grow at an angle of 90º with respect to the axis and present negative geotropism. The structure of the leaves is unknown.
By Falconaumanni – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37304138
Fossil Araucarioxylon arizonicum (petrified wood) outside the National Museum of Natural History, USA, in Washington, DC, USA.
By Daderot – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27276482
There are other fossils as well, preserved through what is known as compression fossilization, which been preserved by being flattened by the weight of sediment accumulated above it until only a thin film of fossil remains. These types of fossils have preserved leaves, seeds, pine-cone, spore, fish, insects, pollen grains and sometimes animal remains.
Recently scientists in the park retrieved a quarter mile deep core sample to understand the history of the earth better. One of the questions they trying to answer is whether three the impact of at least three mountain sized asteroids created a tectonic movement leading to the eruption of chains of volcanoes could have been the key cataclysmic event that ripped apart Pangaea – the earth’s single supercontinent at the time. It turns out the core provides evidence of two different potential story arcs: the change in the fossil record at the time could be connected to powerful asteroid impact in Canada which left behind a 62 mile wide impact crater, or that no single catastrophic event was responsible for the.
Incidentally, Petrified wood is not limited to Arizona. It occurs anywhere the conditions are right. For example, we’ve previously written about the petrified forest in the protected national monument on the Greek Island of Nesbos. Namibia too, has an exceptional petrified forest national park. Discovered by a pair of farmers in the 1950s, the enormous fossilized tree trunks in this case did not originate in the area where they were found, but instead were washed downstream of a river by a great flood. These trees date back to about 280 million years ago.
Typical Veld Landscape near Petrified forest in Namibia
By Olga Ernst – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72029500
Petrified Wood in Namibia
By t_y_l – P9133880, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76429571
Petrified Wood in Namibia
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1274653
Closeup view of Namibian Petrified Wood
By Lidine Mia – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99649068
Petrified wood is found all around the region in Arizona including outside the Petrified Wood National Park, but don’t forget when visiting the park itself that it is both illegal and unethical to take fossils from public land! Do the right thing and enjoy the fossils in their natural place in the park and go home with beautiful memories and photographs.
Originally built with agatized wood blocks and mud mortar, Agate House likely housed a single family sometime between 1050 and 1300, during the Late Pueblo II – Pueblo III Periods. The scarcity of artifacts suggests a relatively brief occupation. Due to its relatively large size, Agate House may have served as a central gathering place. Indeed, Agate House was a part of a much larger community. When first recorded by archeologists in the 1930s, the petrified wood construction of Agate House was thought to be unique. Since then, hundreds of similar petrified wood structure sites have been found in the park, indicating a history of humanity as colorful and diverse as the building blocks of Agate House. Agate House @ Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona
By daveynin – https://www.flickr.com/photos/44124370018@N01/49518910517/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88114729
We have our own petrified forest of sorts at Georarities! Visit our Petrified Wood category to find samples of Arizona, Indonesian, green chromium petrified wood, and other varieties that you can buy for your collection!
Located in east-central near the town of Irvine is Knob’s Region, a “u” shaped arc extending for nearly 230 miles that is home to Kentucky agate, the officially designated state rock of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Highly collectible, Kentucky agate is a beautiful form of agate particularly known for it’s deep red and black hues.
Agate is typically a chalcedony (silicon dioxide) variety of fine or microcrystalline quartz nodule or concretion that may contain banding, mottled or variegated coloring. While most agates from in igneous rocks, Kentucky agate is one of the rare exception that forms in sedimentary rocks, a list which also includes Montana agates and Fairburn agates in the Black Hills.
Kentucky agate tends to be prone to cracking, finding quality specimens without cracks tends to be a challenge, making specimens used in jewelry that are free of the cracks particularly prized, collectible and expensive.
We offer a wide variety of both agates and Kentucky agates for sale on our website, and we have an even wider selection in our studio/gallery including the beautiful black and red pendant below which is our own creation .
Kentucky Agate is often used in jewelry such as this beautiful Red on Black Kentucky Agate Pendant. Note the micro cracks in the stone which is common with this variety of agate due to how it forms.
Agate nodule displaying reds, blacks and yellows. Note the micro cracks. From Estil or Powell County, Kentucky. Photo By James St. John – Agate (Borden Formation, Lower Mississippian; eastern Kentucky, USA) 6, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82926380
Agate nodule from Kentucky with dark reds, orange, black and whites. Photo by James St. John – Agate (Borden Formation, Lower Mississippian; eastern Kentucky, USA) 12, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82926386
Agate nodule from Kentucky, USA, photo By James St. John – Agate (Borden Formation, Lower Mississippian; eastern Kentucky, USA) 13, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82926390
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