This gem has an unusual intense white area separating it from growth including boron.
Does this insinuate a meteor or meteorite impact that caused a change in growth?
Thank you for your thoughts
Hi Laura /do you have a picture?
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My guess is banded quartz////agate.
I’m really more curious about the creation of the white line than the mineral itself, but thank you for the help!
They’re called bands…just look up how agates are formed…nothing to do with boron or meteors.Take care
Thank you for that. I’m asking as it’s not an agate. I appreciate your response
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Curious, how was it determined that there was boron in this?
Previous owner (still owns the largest part of this specimen sent to GIA labs for analysis
Very interesting! So GIA would have had to run LA-ICP-MS to determine that Boron was present. Did they say what the basic mineral / stone species is?
(I am assuming since you are part owner of the specimen, that they shared this with you)
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I don’t have the full report, no. It tests with a mohs hardness of 10 and an SG of 3.5 (my current lap scale doesn’t have an additional decimal, so I ordered another). What do you interpret to be causing the blue gray portion?
Thank you for your positive attitude and helpful input.
Likely one of polymorphic silica phases: tridymite, moganite, cristobalite.
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Thanks! Looking forward to finding out
It scratched beryl, still waiting for the better SG scale
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nom
The stone was too big and broke the stone holder on the SG scale. I’m arranging Raman spectroscopy locally. Meanwhile I picked a low grade “ruby” from my collection. It tests as ruby on presidium, but I think it’s dyed corundum due to the scratch leaving it white even after wiping down. 🫤
So I can’t tell if it did anything to the corundum or just the dye. It’s probably a piece of white and gray corundum
… or possibly a lead glass filled composite ruby.
The lead in these hybrids will often leave a whitish streak when scratched or subjected to acids.
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