Gem & Fossil Reference Chart

A small amount of ferric iron gives this quartz a violet colour. This is one of the most common gem variety of quartz.

A hard milky form of balck quartz used in jewelry and believed to help one change bad habits.

The clear colourless variety is known as Iceland Spar is valuable for optical instruments.

Citrine and amethyst are the common gem varieties of quartz..

This iron sulphide mineral has been called fool’s gold because of it’s brass yellow colour and glistening metallic luster.

is a mixture of several elements and there are many different types. Garnet is frequently used to make jewelry and is sometimes mistaken for rubies.

Moonstone is a member of the feldspar group of minerals. It possesses a luxurious white sheen which gives the appearance of a shining moon.

Pure Slo2 is colourless and is used in optical devices like radio frequency oscillators.

Small amounts of titanium give this massive quartz a pink colour. Used for beads and other jewelry.

Is a red variety of corundum. It gets its colour from small amounts of Chromium. Rubies are one of the most precious gemstones along with diamonds, emeralds and sapphires.

Usually seen as precious blue stone, sapphires can also be pink, green, violet, gray and yellow.

Smoky quartz is an A1 bearing quartz that has been exposed to radiation. Found as massive or crystals

Are made of obsidian and jasper stones used by indigenous people to fashion arrowheads for hunting, fishing and survival.

Consists of fossilized wood where all the organic materials have been replaced over millions of years with silicate minerals that retain the original structure of the wood.

Spiny sea creatures that resembles hedgehogs. The oldest sea urchin fossils are over 140 million years old.

Helicoprion was an ancient genus of sharks that lived 250 million years ago and their teeth were specialized for the job of breaking shells.