Posted on 06/11/2021 11:51:04 AM PDT by Red Badger
At 563 carats, the Star of India is the world’s largest gem-quality blue star sapphire, and is approximately 2 billion years old. (Image credit: D. Finnin/Copyright AMNH)
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What does the legendary Star of India — a 563-carat star sapphire the size of a golf ball — have in common with a 35-million-year-old petrified redwood slab; a massive cluster of sword-like crystals that looks like it came from "Game of Thrones;" and a 5-ton (4.5-metric ton) stone pillar that can "sing?"
You can see all of them, along with 5,000 other amazing stones, in the newly renovated Mignone Hall of Gems and Minerals at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City, which is reopening after a four-year closure on Saturday (June 12). There, one-of-a-kind precious gems appear alongside odd-looking rocks — some of which date to billions of years ago — that have been uniquely warped and twisted by extreme temperatures and pressures.
Individually and together, these objects tell a story of the diverse geologic processes that shape minerals on Earth's surface and deep inside our planet, beginning when the world was young and continuing to this day, museum representatives told Live Science.
Related: 13 mysterious and cursed gemstones
The Star of India, which formed about a billion years ago, was discovered in Sri Lanka in the 18th century. It is one of the best-known gems in the world, in part because it was famously and brazenly stolen from AMNH in 1964, along with several more of the museum's prized stones, by a pair of thieves named Jack "Murf the Surf" Murphy and Allan Kuhn, Smithsonian reported in 2014, on the heist's 50th anniversary. (The one-of-a-kind sapphire was recovered and went back on display in 1965).
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
W00t!!
I’ll wait until Tuesday to go. I could go on another day, but my schedule is OK the way it is, for now.
I’ll do the final tweaking to the talk when I get home, then send it off to you.
Now, I have to do the final tweaking to myself, and them I’m outta here!
So did you go to Walmart?
church was good. It was Fast and Testimony today and for the first time in a long time it took a while for people to get up. But it was good.
No, I didn’t go to Walmart. DP and Frank went after church.
Aww, look at the precious squee!
Good morning.
I hope you slept well!
Now I’m going to go hang up the shirts and try to forget how tired I am.
Pretty well, thank you for asking. I don’t know what Jake was doing, but it wasn’t causing trouble that I could hear. Shannon was in the laundry room.
Good morning. Happy Monday. I am tooling down toward NYC on an Amtrak train. And, yes, I’m wearing a mask. (grumble, argle-bargle)
Good morning. Happy Monday. I am tooling down toward NYC on an Amtrak train. And, yes, I’m wearing a mask. (grumble, argle-bargle)
I wish you the best. At least you’re not in a car.
It must be Monday.
Hang in there, ArGee! We’re in the Peanut Gallery, rootin’ for ya!
Received your email. I’ll go over it when we get back from the library.
No rush. But thanks!
We’re back. I drove because I needed to get gas in the van. Tom should be along shortly for Driving Adventures with his brothers.
Thank Tom for me! What a good son! He’s also got a wicked sense of humor!
I decided I’d lie down for a nap around 0600 because I was nodding off while I sat here. I took the phone in with me because the pill alarm is set for 0730. HAH!! At 0623 a text came in from my daughter. It’s her day off. But Mom needed to hear about the latest problems with the house they’re renting. Unngh.
No nap for me.
I left a note to Chuck this morning, but I don’t know if he’ll have time to talk, since he’s always busy the first five days of the month.
I just had some visitors from Henderson! They came to my baptism, way back when, and were on their way home from a reunion in Yellowstone. Surprise!
How nice!
I’m thinking of lying down with Jake and a book.
I’d like to lie down but at this point it would ruin any chances I had of sleeping tonight.
So I’ll just hang in as long as I can.
I’m back. Jake’s not back. Oh, wait, here he is. Mao!
Wowser. My brain just about did me a job.
I had been thinking my date for picking up the U-Haul was around mid-month, but it’s tomorrow! I had to hurry and reschedule it, so I put it eight weeks out, to October 6.
*phew* Close call, that one!!!
Shouldn’t rootin’ be done in the cellar?
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