Brilliant-blue sapphires look like bits of sky brought down to Earth — but a new study finds these gemstones are from a different boundary: the one between the planet's crust and magma welling up from ...

When Philippe Belley came to the University of British Columbia to study how gemstones form, he didn’t think he would need to learn how to protect himself from polar bears. But when some of those ...

Gabriela Farfan, the Smithsonian's curator of gems and minerals, answers the internet's burning questions about gemstones. Are all minerals crystals? How are diamonds cut? How do geodes form? Is the ...

Kyawthuite, a unique mineral, was discovered in Myanmar's Chaung-Gyi Valley in 2010 and recognized in 2015. The single known ...

On November 4, 1922, a boy accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the bedrock of the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a remote ...

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. - Minnesota's state gemstone is the Lake Superior agate, and for years it has fascinated those young and old. In response to a viewer question from our kiosk at the Science Museum ...

Nature has a lot to offer to humans. Most precious jewelry is made from metals and stones buried deep within the Earth’s surface but the discovery of these rare jewels is not just limited to land. The ...

In Virgin Valley, Nevada, it's possible to spend an afternoon digging for rare black fire opals, while visitors to Coalinga, California, can scour the dirt for pieces of the state's official gemstone, ...