Re: What kind of sets are there?
- From: "J. F. Cornwall" <JCornwall@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 11:38:44 -0600
Tina Hall wrote:
Cyli <cylise@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Tina_Hall@xxxxxxxxxxx (Tina Hall) wrote:
I didn't think pearls were proper gemstones, though.
They aren't stones, so you're right. Like amber, though, they are
jewels. Pearls are the reaction of oysters to grit in their guts.
Yes. That's why I didn't think they were gems. It's something being done to something else, artificial in a way (while still a natural phenomenon).
Amber is tree sap that flowed so slowly it stopped and made a gob
of crud on the tree.
I vaguely remembered something like that. :) (After looking up 'amber' in the dictionary. I remember "Bernstein" being pink, though, not yellow. Or perhaps that was quartz? I used to have a bracelet with some light pink stones.)
And then things like cold and pressure and oceans or coal happened
to the gob and it became a jewel. When I was a child I often
admired pine sap and would pluck off bits of it and roll it in my
fingers. At that point, it's just another sticky substance that's
got a pretty colour and is translucent to transparent. It takes
lots of time and geology for it to become a jewel.
Same counts for diamonds.
So, pearls and amber, being organic substances, can't really be
referred to as gems, but in colloquial terms, we often do refer to
them as such.
Diamonds used to be coal, which used to be vegetation, so that's based on organic stuff, too. My distinction is whether a living being is involved instead of pressure.
Diamonds are a form of carbon. Coal is a form of carbon. However, since diamonds are formed very deep within the Earth's crust (generally 150-200 km below the surface), it's very unlikely that the carbon came from coal and vegetation. Diamond carbon is likely from other sources (it is a very abundant element).
Jim
.
I would put amber with the gemstones. But I'm no authority. (Not that that keeps me from having an opinion. :) )
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