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 ...
The TV series, “Shetland” is amazing in the way it captures the place. The accents are to die for!!
The only horse I ever saw that my sister couldn’t ride was a little black Shetland stallion. He reared and off she came! Silly girl thought it was fun and wanted to know how to make him do it again.
Wonderful little animals! Thanks!
I don’t know about my own oil change, but I do know some people are walking around being a quart low...
I’ve only ever had it done to the car.
You’re welcome. Kathleen suggested it.
Give Kathleen my thanks and a hug!
Good luck on all of it, ArGee. If anyone deserves a break, you do! I’ll keep you in my prayers!
Pat has emerged. He can drive out to camp when I do, departing at 11:00, and bring his brothers and their stuff back while I run the range for a while.
Off to get the oil changed.
I’ll probably not be back before you leave, so safe trip!
Seeya!
Wellnow. That wore me out. Time to take a mess off my feet.
As long as the break is in one of those little used bones, like the pinky toe, I’m OK with a break. Those hurt, but you can still walk.
Some breaks are good breaks and I was talking about a good break in your luck! ;o]
Hmmm. I wouldn’t know one of those if it jumped up and bit me in ...
Well, you know the drill.
Right now I’m on hold with my business insurance company because generating the new certificate of insurance required a special team member.
I wore me out, too, though I had a nice time shooting with a few teenaged boys.
Then I had a shower and fell down with Jake.
I’m sorry you wore you out but glad that if you had to fall, at least you fell down with Jake.
We had rain and thunder things and maybe a light show to go with the noise, but with blackout curtains, I can’t tell you for sure. It was a nice rain for a while. Not long enough to do any real good here, but maybe other areas got more of it for longer.
The storms the last two days have cooled us off by 40° and 30°, respectively.
Good morning. Jake was out all night. It didn’t rain. We’ll have more naps today after the brothers get back to camp.
I need to take Vlad to the post office when it opens so he can mail some cards.
Good morning. Happy Friday Eve!
Kitteh says, “Enough - let’s get to Friday!”
What a perfect little squee!
Good morning.
It’s 70% in here, right now, and and 78° and by some, I guess that’s “comfortable.” But I also guess I need to get used to the humidity.
I had some strange dreams, but I’ll probably have to go online for the meanings.
Right now, though, I need to go sort pills.
Sally texted saying she dreamed Patrick was “identifying” as a diesel truck. In her dream, I was opposed to this, but in real life, I’ve given up and totally embraced entropy. Go out and play in traffic, kid.
I dreamed of a baby girl with both legs prosthetics, all three of my sisters, and an ex-husband. Oh, yes, and some yummy looking food that had no name but I suspect was meat of some sort with a crumb-type crust.
And suddenly, before I woke up, my sisters were all in mummy bags.
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