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Amethyst is formed when water on the Earth’s surface reacts with silicon dioxide gas and causes it to dissolve. Then when conditions change to cause evaporation or dissolution of this solution, silicon dioxide precipitates to form quartz crystals. Amethyst is a type of quartz that comes in varying shades of purple.
Amethyst has been highly prized throughout the ages for its dazzling beauty, immense power, and strength that some claim helps to stimulate and calm Activate the mind and emotions. It is a stone with multiple uses and purposes; It is a great amulet for use in the creative arts, especially its darker shades. It is often symbolized as a stone suitable for poets, composers, inventors, painters, and artists. So if you have a friend who wants to gift him a precious stone with meaning that you wish him focus and creativity in his work, then the amethyst is one of the appropriate stones in this regard, and the origins of this meaning go back to the cultures of ancient peoples, which do not exceed at best being fictional legends.
The name “Amethyst” stems from the ancient Greek culture, which means “not drunk”, and was named on the basis of the belief that this stone The cream helps focus and thus it can prevent people from falling into a state of “drowsy”. Amethyst is suitable for those born in February and is the official stone of South Carolina. It is also a semi-precious stone used in the manufacture of jewelry and accessories on a large scale. Amethysts tend to form six-sided prismatic shapes with hexagonal pyramidal shapes also. The stone obtains its purple color from the presence of iron impurities, trace elements, and radiation that affect its structure. We would like to point out here an interesting fact that in recent years, most of the amethysts used in the jewelry industry were extracted from mines located in Brazil, although before that amethyst was extracted mainly in mines located in the Ural Mountains in Russia. While amethyst is extracted in North America mainly from (Thunder Bay, Ontario). It is also worth noting that synthetic amethysts are created and manufactured from pure, radioactive quartz . Other similar gemstones that are formed by the reaction process of surface waters and the same minerals include agate and opal, which are based on silicon dioxide, as well as turquoise stones, which are composed of copper-containing minerals.
Regarding how amethyst is formed in nature; Scientists specializing in geology and gem sciences still have doubts about this point in theory, as they do not agree on the ratio 100% for how to configure it. Although amethyst may appear simple in its external appearance, when an incision is made, it becomes clear that there is a cavity inside it with a group of beautiful crystals. While the general and prevailing scientific agreement indicates that the process of forming amethyst stones went through two stages, namely: first, the formation of the cavity and Second, the formation of internal crystals .
Amethysts are hollow rocks that line the inner walls of the crystals, where they begin In the formation of that cavity inside it first during the process of formation in lava that originates close to the surface of the earth. As a result, amethysts can be found in many, many places around the world. The first step in the natural stone formation process is the formation of gas cavities in the lava. Gas cavities can form in the form of bubbles in the presence of carbon dioxide and water vapor. Some scientists believe that these cavities can also form from lava or magma flows near tree roots or other objects close to the surface of the earth. Then that lava freezes completely before it fills the voids of the rocks and forms those cavities.
The cavities are then filled with a liquid containing small amounts From the iron element, over time this liquid forms amethyst crystals.
As for the process of processing natural amethyst stones; During its formation, it is exposed to gamma rays, X-rays or pure quartz electron radiation (rock crystal) that has been grafted with iron impurities. Note that when the stone is exposed to heat, this can cause the effects of the radiation to partially cancel out and the amethysts to become yellow or even green. It is said that many citrine, cairngorm or yellow quartz are just amethysts that have been exposed to high heat. It should be noted that amethysts can be formed under different conditions and varying patterns. Some of these patterns may be perfect and others are the opposite; Amethysts formed in the druses in igneous rocks are short prismatic while often the prism faces may not develop at all. Amethyst forms at many locations in high igneous and metamorphic rocks (eg, in the Alps) as peaks on top of crystals or smoky quartz stones. Although there are many models of relatively elongated amethyst crystals, we have not seen or heard of amethysts that take the form of needle quartz that grows rapidly because the occurrence of this would either prevent the correct incorporation of iron in the structure of the crystals or may lead to the presence of impurities that will suppress The formation of color centers in the stone.
How is the formation of Synthetic amethyst stones
(Synthetic amethyst stones are created in specially equipped labs using a procedure known as hydrothermal growth, which causes crystals to develop inside a particular area under high pressure. Natural and fake amethysts are created in order to reach a wider market and at a lesser cost. It is worth noting that both real and fake or made amethyst have the same chemical and physical qualities, making it difficult to identify variations and distinguish between them even with the most modern (and often costly) gemological examinations.
