Features:
Diamond is a mineral composed entirely of carbon, and each carbon atom in its structure closely forms a cubic system of valence bonds with four adjacent carbon atoms. Therefore, diamonds are by far the hardest natural substance found on the earth.
Stone culture:
According to historical records, as early as the Hongzhi period of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1488), there were gold diggers looking for a special colorless transparent sand in Yuanjiang near Changde, Hunan. This kind of sand not only shines in the sunlight, but also emits colorful brilliance, and its texture is hard, so it is easy to describe iron bowls or porcelain bowls. The gold digger called it "octagon" and gave it to the government, named it "diamond". It can be seen that diamonds were produced in Hunan in the Ming Dynasty.
Formation and distribution:
Most diamonds come from two kinds of volcanic rocks, K-Mg lamprophyre and Kimberlite. They were formed in an ancient land mass at the depth of 654.38-3 billion years ago 150km, and crystallized in a specific high temperature, high pressure and reducing environment (usually anoxic environment). Volcanic eruption pushes diamonds to the surface of the earth, and magma cools to form a steep conical tube, in which most natural diamonds are "born". The most famous diamond found in China is called "Chang Lin Diamond", which was found in Linshu County in February of 1977 and 65438+. Its appearance is light yellow and its weight is 158.786 carats. Besides Shandong Province, Hunan Province is also a famous diamond producing area in China.
Features:
Natural gold is a naturally occurring gold mineral. Pure gold is reddish yellow. In nature, it generally appears in the form of granular, irregular dendritic, flaky or massive aggregates, often accompanied by silver or trace copper.
Stone culture:
Natural nuggets produced by vein ore or placer ore are called "nuggets". It is usually composed of natural gold, timely and other mineral aggregates, with large particles and irregular shapes, so it is named after it looks like a dog's head. Scientists are very interested in the shape and birth of gold bullion. Through the experimental study on the metallogenic mechanism of "gold nugget", microorganisms, bacteria and molds were separated from the water and soil samples of gold mines. The results show that these microorganisms are good at adsorbing and aggregating soluble gold in their early and middle growth stages to form colloids. At the late growth stage, the colloidal gold complex ions in the body were reduced and precipitated into natural gold. Its microorganisms are clustered, and so on. Over time, in a place that is conducive to the growth environment of this microorganism, it has changed from a small gold crystal nucleus to a natural gold nugget.
Formation and distribution:
Natural gold mainly occurs in gold-bearing veins caused by high and medium hydrothermal fluids, or in medium and low temperature hydrothermal deposits related to volcanic hydrothermal action in volcanic rocks. Natural gold is produced in Shandong, Heilongjiang, Xinjiang, Henan and Hunan.
Features:
Tourmaline is the handicraft name of Tourmaline, and it is also a kind of jewelry in Tourmaline "family". Tourmaline, as a borosilicate crystal, contains many chemical elements such as aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium and potassium, and its composition is complex, so it presents a rainbow-like colorful color.
Stone culture:
Tourmaline's English name "tourmaline" comes from toramalli, which means "mixed gem" in ancient Ceylon language. /kloc-in the 0/8th century, tourmaline was found to have the ability to attract or repel light substances such as dust, so it was also called "vacuum stone". In China, tourmaline is also called "Bi Se" and "Bi Xia Xi". It is famous for its rich colors and gorgeous colors, and is deeply loved by the public. Tourmaline has been used in China for a long time. The Palace Museum in Beijing has preserved a large number of tourmaline ornaments, such as Buddha beads, chicken hearts, earrings and bonsai.
Formation and distribution:
Tourmaline is rich in resources and widely distributed in the world. It mainly occurs in granite pegmatite and gas-generated hydrothermal deposits, and gem-grade tourmaline almost exists only in granite pegmatite. In China, tourmaline is mainly produced in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Yunnan and other places.
Features:
Aquamarine is a gem-grade beryl mineral. Because it contains a small amount of ferrous ions, it appears sky blue to sea blue or turquoise blue, especially bright and flawless bright blue to light blue. Large-grained aquamarine is more common than other gemstones.
Stone culture:
Legend has it that aquamarine is produced at the bottom of the sea and is the essence of seawater. Throughout the ages, aquamarine has been regarded as an amulet by sailors or navigators to protect the safety of going to sea, so aquamarine is also called "the stone of blessing" and "the sea of blessing".
Formation and distribution:
Beryl mainly occurs in granite pegmatite, greisen and high temperature hydrothermal veins. Brazil, Mozambique and Madagascar are the main producing areas of aquamarine. The aquamarine producing areas in China are mainly Xinjiang, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia, Hainan and Sichuan.
Features:
Rhodonite is mostly rhombic, with hexagonal or triangular crystal system, and is a typical self-color mineral. Because its basic chemical composition contains Mn2+ element, it is often pale pink, sometimes brown or gray.
The name of rhodochrosite comes from the Greek word "rhodokhros", which means "with rose color". Rhododendron was first discovered in Argentina, so it is also called "Argentine stone". The rhodochrosite produced in Argentina is basically stalactite-like, with smooth and complete appearance, transparent crystals and beautiful red and white patterns on the cross section, and is known as "Inca Rose" and "Redstone".
Stone culture:
The rhodochrosite produced in Wuzhou, Guangxi, China is very famous. In 2009, rhodochrosite was discovered in Cangwu County, Guangxi, which is the largest, largest single crystal and best quality rhodochrosite found in China at present. The largest crystal is 22 cm, which is now on display in geological museum, Hunan Province.
Formation and distribution:
Sedimentation can form a large-scale rhodochrosite layer, which is formed in the hydrothermal process under endogenous conditions and coexists with metal sulfide, rhodochrosite, fluorite and timely. Manganese oxides or hydroxides such as pyrolusite and pyrolusite are easily oxidized during weathering.
Features:
Topaz that reaches the gem level is called "topaz", which is often in short columnar crystal shape, and the aggregate shape is columnar, granular and massive. Topaz collected from placer is mostly ground into oval shape. Topaz is like the color palette of nature. Under the irradiation of long-wave and short-wave ultraviolet rays, topaz of different colors will show different fluorescence. According to the color, it can be generally divided into colorless, wine yellow, blue, green and red topaz, but it is easy to fade after long-term exposure. The purity of topaz is very high, and it is usually difficult to see inclusions or defects on polished topaz, which is one of the reasons why topaz is deeply loved in the jewelry market.
Stone culture:
Topaz is mostly colorless or yellowish when mined, so it is called "topaz" in China, and "beauty of stone" is called "jade" in ancient times. At the end of the 20th century, in order to avoid confusion with Topaz and topaz, the English transliteration name Topaz was adopted to name the gem-grade topaz in domestic gem circles.
Formation and distribution:
Topaz is formed by the release of fluorine-containing steam from various igneous rocks in the final crystallization process, which generally appears in the holes at the edges of rhyolite, granite and pegmatite, as well as in the hydrothermal solution of veins. It also appears in alluvial sediments, and the perfect cleavage of pebbles eroded by water leads to brittle crystals, so some crystals remain in the matrix. Brazil is the main producer of high-quality topaz in the world, while topaz in China is mainly produced in Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Xinjiang and other places.
Features:
Malachite is named for its beautiful colors and charming patterns like peacock feathers. Natural malachite usually exists in the form of aphanitic stalactites, blocks, shells, nodules and fibrous aggregate, with concentric layered and radial fiber structure, and contains several colors such as green, malachite green and dark green. Malachite is opaque dark green with striped patterns of different shades. What is worth getting is that this unique and beautiful stripe is not found in other gems.
Stone culture:
Malachite is one of the most important minerals in human history. As early as around 4000 BC, it was discovered that malachite can be heated by fire to produce copper, which may be the first time that human beings smelt metal from ore. In ancient Egypt, malachite was mined in mines in Sinai and the eastern desert for cosmetics and pigments. In addition, there are countless ancient murals containing malachite pigments.
Formation and distribution:
Malachite occurs in the oxidation zone of copper sulfide deposits, mainly the oxidation products of chalcopyrite and chalcocite, and coexists with minerals such as azurite and chalcocite. Malachite is often used as a by-product of copper mine. If malachite is found on site, primary rocks containing chalcopyrite may be found nearby.
Features:
Emerald is a gem-grade beryl mineral, which is emerald green. Its crystals are often hexagonal columns with fine longitudinal stripes on the columns. Its aggregates are crystal clusters, and the crystal sizes are quite different. The color source of emerald is because it contains trace amounts of chromium.
Stone culture:
Emerald is one of the oldest gemstone varieties. For ancient Egyptians, emeralds symbolized fertility and life, while Aztecs called emeralds "Gechar" (a bird with green wings), symbolizing the change of seasons.
Formation and distribution:
Beryl mainly occurs in granite pegmatite, greisen and high temperature hydrothermal veins. In metasomatic pegmatite, beryl basically contains no alkali, and often coexists with syenite, microcline and muscovite. However, the alkali content formed by sodium metasomatism in the later stage is as high as 7.23%, which is often associated with albite, spodumene, Yingshi and muscovite.
At present, Colombia, Zambia and Brazil are the main producing areas of emeralds. In addition, India, Russian Federation and China also produce emeralds.
Characteristics: Realgar single crystal is thin columnar and needle-shaped, but rare, usually dense granular or clod. The color is orange.
Formation and distribution: orpiment and realgar are mostly produced in low-temperature hydrothermal deposits and sulfur-containing craters, so orpiment is a kind of * * * mineral of realgar, which is called "mineral mandarin duck". Realgar will also produce stibnite and cinnabar. Mainly produced in the United States, China, Hunan and Yunnan.
Characteristics: Calcite is often rhombohedral, and the aggregate is often massive, granular, stalactite and crystal cluster. , hence the name, because a lot of square fragments will be produced under percussion. Its color is mostly white or colorless. Colorless and transparent calcite, also called Iceland spar, can be used to see the double image of an object.
Formation and distribution: Calcite is the rock-forming ore of the earth, occupying more than 40% of the total crust, with no less than 200 species. Calcite in China is mainly distributed in Guangxi, Jiangxi and Hunan.
Features: Gypsum is calcium sulfate dihydrate, with plate-like crystals, white, gray, red, brown and other colors, with glass or silk luster. Anhydrite is anhydrous calcium sulfate, and its crystal is plate-shaped, white-gray, and glassy. Two kinds of gypsum are often produced together and can be transformed into each other under certain geological conditions.
Formation and distribution: gypsum deposits are mainly sedimentary deposits, often occurring in sedimentary rocks formed by bays and inland lakes. Gypsum mines have been produced in various geological ages, among which the early Cretaceous and tertiary sedimentary gypsum mines are the most important. China is rich in gypsum mineral resources, and the total proven gypsum reserves rank first in the world.
Features: The crystal is often rhombic biconical or thick plate-shaped, but it is rare. It is usually dense aggregate in the form of blocks, granules, ribbons, spheres and bells. Natural sulfur is light yellow and brownish yellow, and the color is red, green, gray and black when there are impurities.
Formation and distribution: About half of the sulfur in the world is produced in the form of natural elements, that is, natural sulfur, which exists in the uppermost part of the earth's crust and its surface. There are different forms of natural sulfur, the most important of which are biochemical action and natural deposition formed by volcanic origin. In addition, the sedimentary sulfur ore formed by biochemical action is formed by bacterial reduction of sulfate in a closed lagoon; In the lower part of the oxidation zone of sulfide deposits, it is formed by oxidative decomposition of pyrite; In some sediments, gypsum is decomposed, such as gypsum at the top of some salt domes, and is decomposed by sulfur bacteria to form natural sulfur. In addition, sulfur can also be directly produced by gas condensation (sublimation) or incomplete oxidation of hydrogen sulfide gas, such as near the edge of active volcano or dormant volcano, which is transformed from gas ejected from sulfur pores.
Features: The cinnabar crystal is plate-shaped or diamond-shaped, the aggregate is granular or massive, and the color is bright red, vermilion, reddish or dark red.
Stone culture: China is the first country in the world to make pigments with cinnabar. The so-called "painting Oracle bones" is to grind vermilion into red powder and embed it in the notch of Oracle Bone Inscriptions to show its eye-catching. This practice has a history of thousands of years. Later emperors all followed this method, using vermilion red powder to make red ink to write approval documents, from which "Zhu Pi" came. Cinnabar-patterned dickite is a famous bloodstone at home and abroad, and it is one of the famous Yin Zhangshi in China.
Formation and distribution: Cinnabar only occurs in volcanic rocks, hot spring deposits, low-temperature hydrothermal deposits and fault breccia dolomite caves, and often coexists with Yingshi, Realgar and calcite. China is the main producing area of cinnabar, mainly in Xinhuang, Hunan and Tongren, Guizhou.
Features: The timely crystals are mostly hexagonal columnar and rhombic aggregates. Colorless and transparent crystals are called crystals, and amethyst, smoky crystal, rose timely, etc. are colored by impurities.
Stone culture: The colorless and transparent stone is called "Krystallos" by the Greeks, which means "Bai Bing". They think it is solid and durable ice in time. As early as the stone age, people used it to make simple production tools such as stone axes and arrows, which were used to hunt food and resist enemy harm.
Formation and distribution: Synchronism is the most abundant mineral in the earth's crust, and China is rich in Synchronism resources.
Features: fluorite is named after it emits the same fluorescence as fireflies under ultraviolet or cathode ray irradiation. Colors are light green, light purple, purple, white, red and so on. Fluorite crystals are divided into hexahedron, octahedron and hexahedron interspersed with twins.
Stone Culture: In Neolithic Age, Hemudu people in China chose fluorite as decoration. The mining of fluorite originated in ancient Egypt, and was widely used in sculpture at that time. In ancient Rome, fluorite was used as a gem to make wine glasses and vases.
Formation and distribution: Fluorite is a common mineral in nature, which often occurs in veins. It can be produced together with other minerals and is produced in many parts of the world. China is one of the countries with the most fluorite minerals in the world.
Features: Colorless cubic crystal, often octahedral in appearance, or aggregated with cubes and rhombic dodecahedrons.
Stone culture: the mining and refining of alunite can be traced back to the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, with a history of more than 640 years.
Formation and distribution: Alum is often metamorphic from alkali feldspar by low-temperature sulfate solution, and is mostly produced in volcanic rocks. Fanshan Town, Cangnan County, Zhejiang Province is known as the "Alum Capital of the World" because of its rich alum ore.