Monday, February 15, 2010

Location, Location, Location

It's not particularly uncommon for a stone or gem to be specific to one area on the globe, or even to one tiny little plot of land, like a single mine. When gems and stone deposits form, they form from the heat and pressure deep underground of a particular chemical soup that has come together, right there, and right then. Anyone who has ever made a particularly good chili, and then spent the rest of their life trying to duplicate it, can appreciate the subtlety of the chemistry involved. A pinch of magnesium, a dollop of zinc - can be all it takes to push the colour off in some other direction entirely.

This map shown is a photograph of a postcard showing the various locations, and stones that are typical to that particular mine.

So, if you were to hear someone talk about "Sleeping Beauty" turquoise - you can see that it comes from a specific mine in the northwest corner of Arizona. Or that the bulk of the mines are actually clustered in Nevada.

Next week - which of those sample I showed you are natural, and which are stabilized?

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