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Friday, 19 October 2012

Chrysocolla is a stunning gemstone

By Joe Wilhelm


Chrysocolla is one of the most beautiful precious stones found in jewelries and thought of as a valuable ornament nowadays. Due to its infamous deep bluish green color, it is regarded as an attractive find in the world of minerals and fossils. Though enjoyable to the eye, the majority know very little about Chrysocolla and its origins. Often confused as Turquoise, it's a silicate mineral often formed thru the oxidation of copper ores. Its distinctive and delightful blue, blue-green and green color with streaks of white to blue green makes it a favourite decorative stone typically utilised in jewelries. The name Chrysocolla was first coined in 315 BCE by Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and student of Aristotle. The term Chrysocolla is the blend of two Greek words รข€" chrysos meaning gold and kola meaning glue.

Chrysocolla is usually connected with other secondary copper mineral. It can have the appearance of turquoise but even mor vibrant . Nonetheless Chrysocolla can be tough for artist to work with and it has a toughness of 2.5 3.5 out of 10 on Moh's scale. It is considered valuable due to its attractive colour.

Since it is a secondary copper mineral and usually found in copper oxidation zones, it replaces other secondary minerals like quartz, malachite, limonite, cuprite and azurite. Given this nature, the determination of this silicate mineral is brittle and appears clear to opaque. Even though it is regarded as a minor ore of copper, it is also one of the most common gems used as a decoration presently. Aside from its infamous lush blue-green colour, it can also form in blackish blue and brown colors, although the blue green colour is still to be highly popular. Chrysocolla can be considered as one of the most interesting gems in the world of mineral and fossils due to its glassy appearance which makes it a fitting ornament stone.

Over the years, scientist struggled to discover the genuine composition of Chrysocolla. But a study conducted in 2006 provided proofs that Chrysocolla's composition contains a copper hydroxide mineral called spertiniite, chalcedony a mineral silica made of quartz and moganite, amorphous silica or generally known as opal, and naturally, water.

Since it forms in regions with high copper oxidation, it can be discovered in nations or locations with copper deposits. In Europe, Cornwall, England is noted to have high occurrence of Chrysocolla formation. In South America, Chile is a notable source location and in Africa, it can be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In the US, several states were identified to have major occurrence of Chrysocolla formation. These states are Pennsylvania, Utah, New Mexico and the most important source location in the USA is Arizona.

Since the formation and composition of Chrysocolla itself is a wonder in the mineral and gemstone world, unless you'd purchase Chrysocolla jewelry, this is a gem that isn't come along your way each day.




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