The Geological Processes That Form Gemstones
Gems, by definition, are “natural or artificially produced minerals or other materials that have sufficient beauty and durability for use as a personal adornment”; “precious or semiprecious stones cut and polished for ornament” and “something prized especially for great beauty or perfection”. but a lot more can be said about them. The word gem comes from the Latin word “gemma” and it means: a bud on a plant.
The majorities of us is attracted to gemstones and are very familiar with the most popular and well known varieties of precious stones such as diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires but there are many other minerals that also possess qualities that make them very desirable. These are the semiprecious stones. Some of these lesser known stones are strikingly beautiful. Certain rocks, such as lapis-lazuli, organic materials, such as pearls, amber or corals are not minerals, but are products of once living plants or animals and they are also used for jewelry, and are therefore considered to be gemstones as well.
Some of my favorites TV shows are those that deal with geological stories about “how the earth was formed”. Watching those programs you can appreciate the complex processes that planet earth has gone through over billions of years. It is through that evolutionary process that these precious and semiprecious stones are formed. Gemstones are usually created underground over very long periods of time, through the effects of intense pressure and heat. As the earth renews itself and repositions the plates that form the crust of the planet, rocks and minerals are sent downwards in the places where the plates collide and fall and are absorbed into the magma.
Bellow the crust, where the crust and the mantle meet, there are many cracks and cavities that develop in the crust due to the constant and violent movement and friction of the magma against the plates. So once again minerals, in liquid form, flow back to the crust through cracks and cavities. After millions of years of pressure and heat, the flow of deposits cool and eventually develop into the precious and semiprecious stones that we value and like so much.