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 ...
Happy Monday, all y’all. No mail, no library, oh well. It’s always a school day here!
Monkey Face is in the throes of her move, with help from her son. As of this morning, she was doing fine, but was impatient for sleepers-in to get going on the day.
We’ve got white schiff falling out of the sky. Not much, but it’s there.
Be careful!
We’re done loading, and are back in St George, waiting for morning. We’ve been invited for dinner tonight.
My body hates me!
I’ll be on bright and early in the morning, so I’ll get to see the day’s kitteh, all fresh and new!
So cute! Thanks!
With all of that planning, I'm sure it will all go well!!
I think this is ‘Face’s third move since we’ve been FRiends. Tucson to Henderson to Hurricane to Cabot?
And I’ve just been here in Boring, east of Charlotte.
Sally went to an estate sale yesterday and found a Captain Midnight Secret Squadron Decoder Ring from the 1940s. 25 cents!
Good morning, everyone. Happy Twosday!
Kitteh seems as confused as I am about what day of the week it really is.
I’m a little confused, myself. Grumpy, too. Happy Tiw’s Day.
I’m not Grumpy, but I’m not sure I’m Happy. Perhaps Sleepy?
I don’t get sleepy until later in the day.
‘Face says she, the son, and the truck are making good progress, going east on I-40.
And they’re going to drive about another hour and a half and then stop in Gallup, NM. I have been to Gallup. It is scenic.
East bound and down.
Loaded up and truckin’
I’ve been from Florida to Arizona using I-10, I-20, and I-40 at least once each.
Long drive. ‘Face reported they arrived safely in Gallup and found a place to stay. It’s colder than they planned!
“I think this is ‘Face’s third move since we’ve been FRiends. Tucson to Henderson to Hurricane to Cabot?...”
It’s actually my fourth — Del Rio to Tucson to Henderson to Hurricane to Cabot.
Probably my last, though.
Super Sally for getting a decoder ring!
Funny you should sing that...Favorite Son sang it as well...
;o]
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