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 ...
I’m pleased for you. I hope it’s a fully rainy day for you!
It’s just dim here. I’m pretty annoyed.
Good morning, everyone. Happy Friday!
So much to shred, so little time.
Go ahead and hope. What can it hurt?
Happy Friday to you!
Thanks. If you call “flat line” sleeping being asleep, then I slept OK. No REM, no deep sleep. Just light sleep or awake. Makes for a sluggish day, for sure.
And we’ve gotten more rain in the last few days than we have in the last nine months, and some of the passes up in the northern part of the state are snowbound. I’ll have to make sure I keep a watchful eye on the weather for the next week.
I’m glad we’re taking I-40, but we may have to take I-10.
I quit shredding. I’m not going to shred again until I get where I’m going.
Happy Friday!! (Don’t forget to oil the blades!)
My fellow residents are all pretty sluggish, too.
Still dark here except for a single lightening bolt a mile away. Stopped drizzling, but the deck is wet.
Yeah, but I’m a few years older than they are, and my hormones aren’t raging. They’ve gone walkabout.
Before there were paper shredders there were kittehs.
There still are kittehs! But I don’t have one, so I just use my hands. *R-r-riiiiipp*
You can fill them with clothes, gather the ties to close loosely, hold the bag mouth so just a small opening exists, and lean/press all of the air out...
Tie the mouth close securely by wrapping the ties around the neck a few times...
Thanks! That would probably work if I had a large suitcase, but if it won’t fit in the overhead bin, it’s too big for me to wrestle with. Which is why I chose Space Bags — some are quite small, and fit in the small suitcase perfectly.
After my trip to CO last summer, though, the wheels literally fell off my American Tourister bag, so I had to get another. The new one is a bit smaller but has hard sides and the casters roll in every direction.
This trip will be to road test for the new bag!
Agreed, though I would tend to be on the “food” side more...
Good Morning, and Happy Friday to All!
Ahh, I see that you are a fancy traveler/mover... I just stack the bags wherever they fit...
I just don’t want to carry a lot of stuff with me when I travel. I mean, with laundromats everywhere these days, and hotels offering free washers and dryers, I don’t need to take a lot of clothing. Not to mention there’s less to be lost!
The Offspring all get plenty to eat and plenty of opportunities for sleep, so I don’t know why they have such a hard time getting moving. Maybe it’s genetic.
Certainly not on your mother's side of the family. ;o]
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