Minerals & Gemstone 480x104
 

NEW GEMSTONES ADDED

We have also been fervently working on the gemstone section, trying to add in gemstones as we come across them as we edit the minerals. We have added the following new gemstones in the past 3 months:

  • Amazonite
  • Andesine
  • Diopside
  • Jade
  • Labradorite
  • Moonstone
  • Orthoclase
  • Sunstone

 

New Minerals

Much of the Phyllosilicates were missing. The Mica and Chlorite Minerals are referenced as accessory minerals in quite a bit of minerals in the system, and since these weren't in the system there was no link to them. Because these minerals are so prevalent, we made sure to add them in. And Talc is quite an important mineral that was missing, being #1 on the Mohs Scale. Here are the new minerals:

Talc

Mica Group:

  • Muscovite
  • Phlogopite
  • Biotite
  • Lepidolite

Chlorite Group:

  • Chlorite
  • Clinochlore
  • Cookeite
  • Chamosite

Updated Minerals

Below is a list of all the minerals that we edited in the last 4 months. We have completely re-written the content, especially the outdated locality information, and added new pictures for each of these minerals:

Silica Group:

  • Opal
  • Coesite
  • Tridymite
  • Cristobalite
  • Melanophlogite

Feldspar Group:

  • Orthoclase
  • Microcline
  • Plagioclase Series
  • Albite
  • Oligoclase
  • Andesine
  • Labradorite
  • Bytownite
  • Anorthite
  • Sanidine
  • Anorthoclase
  • Celsian

Serpentine Group:

  • Serpentine

Amphible Group:

  • Actinolite
  • Tremolite

Pyroxene Group:

  • Jadeite
  • Enstatite
  • Diopside
  • Hedenbergite
  • Augite
  • Johannsenite
  • Omphacite
  • Spodumene (currenty being worked on at the time of this posting)

 

Updated Gemstone pages:

  • Opal

 

TONS OF UPDATES

We have really been slacking off on updating the blog. But we haven't been slacking off on adding and updating new content! Because the last time we updated material was in April, and its now September, we have have a huge list below! We'll split this into several blog posts so its not too overwhelming. And we'll be better about updating in the future.

We'll post an update on the following topics:

- Updated Minerals

- New Minerals

- New Gemstones

- New Photos

- Animated 3D crystal illustrations

Advanced Filter

The mineral page now allows you to select multiple items in the dropdown filter. For example, you can now sort for all minerals between hardness 5 and 6 with a white streak and hexagonal crystal.