Australian Opals
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 Austrian opal jewelry continues to become more and more popular, with the amazing colors found in the different types of opals.
95% of the world's opals are mined in Australia. Over 100 million years ago Central Australia was covered by an inland sea and sediment saturated with silica surrounded the shoreline. After the sea receded to become the Artesian basin, natural conditions released the silica into cracks in rocks, layers in the clay, and fossils.
Australian Opal formed in those cracks, making this gemstone one of the few to form in sedimentary rock. Even today, opal contains 6-10 percent water, leftovers from that sea from which it was created. Black opals have the most striking colors and are more valuable than crystal white opal.
How an Australian opal is cut and how the light is refracted determines how many colors will be seen in the opal.
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