Gemstones Opals
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 Among the more popular gemstones, opals can be found in both South America and Australia, 95% of the world's opals are mined in Australia.
The story of how opals evolved as gemstones is fascinating. 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. Gemstones opals 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. Opal is among one of the many birthstone gemstones to echo the sea and the tides, along with moonstone.
In the darker grouping of gemstones, black opals have the most striking colors and are more valuable than crystal white opal. How the opal is cut and how the light is refracted determines how many colors will be seen in the gemstone.
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