Vanadium

What is vanadium?
Vanadium was originally discovered by the Mexican/Spanish mineralogist Andres Manuel del Río in 1801. He extracted the new element from a sample of lead ore and found salts formed a multitude of colors. His original name for this colorful element was panchromium, meaning all colors.
del Rio renamed his element 'erythronium' (Greek for 'red') because the crystals of vanadium would turn red upon heating.


Then, the French chemist Hippolyte Victor Collet-Descotils claimed del Río's element was actually chromium. del Río retracted his discovery claim. Finally, Swedish chemist Nils Sefström rediscovered the element in 1831 and named the element vanadium after the Scandinavian goddess of beauty Vanadis, putting an end to the disputes about who discovered the element.

But enough about the founders. Vanadium itself is actually a very interesting element. It is named after the Scandinavian goddess as mentioned above because as she was the goddess of beauty, the stones were very beautiful as they had multicolored compounds. However, pure vanadium is a soft, ductile bright white metal. Vanadium has good corrosion resistance to alkalis, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, and saltwater, but it oxidizes readily at temperatures exceeding 660°C. The metal has good structural strength. Vanadium and all of its compounds are toxic and should be handled with great care.

What is it used for?
Vanadium is used for many things, such as in nuclear applications, for producing rust-resistant spring and high-speed tool steels, and as a carbide stabilizer in making steels. Just about 80% of the vanadium that is produced is used as a steel additive or ferrovanadium. Vanadium foil is used as a bonding agent for cladding steel with titanium. Vanadium pentoxide is used as a catalyst, as a mordant for dyeing and printing fabrics, in the manufacture of aniline black, and in the ceramics industry. Vanadium-gallium tape is used to produce superconducting magnets.

Where is it found?
Vanadium is found in the Earth's crust at 50 parts per million. It also occurs in approximately 65 minerals, including vanadinite, carnotite, patronite, and roscoelite. It is found in certain iron ores and phosphate rock and in some crude oils as organic complexes. Vanadium is found in small percentages in most meteorites, but not all. Vanadium metal also may be produced by calcium reduction of V2O5 in a pressure vessel.

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Titanium

What is titanium?

Titanium is the 22nd element in the periodic table of elements. First discovered in 1791 by William Gregor of England, it was named for the Latin titans, which, in mythology, are the first sons of Earth. The name is appropriate, as pure titanium is a beautiful white metal with low density and very high strength and high corrosion resistance.

 This being the case, it is resistant to most acids, gases, and chloride solutions. The only thing that harms titanium is when it is free of oxygen. Titanium burns in air and is the only known element that burns in nitrogen.

What is titanium used for?
Titanium is used for many things, including:

• Prevention of cathodic corrosion
• Surgery of the human body. Since it is already in the human body, it is one of the few safe metals to use during dangerous surgeries. It is non-toxic to the body, unlike some other elements.
• Titanium DIOXIDE is used to make man-made gemstones. However, the gems are usually very soft and not very good.
• Titanium dioxide is very bright white pigment, and is used to make high-quality wall and artist paint. It is also used in napkins and toothpaste.The paint is an excellent reflector of infrared radiation, and because of this, is often used in solar observatories. The paint is also permanent.
• Because the metal burns in oxygen, titanium is often used to produce smoke screens.

Where is titanium found?
Titanium is the 9th most abundant element in the earth's crust. It is almost always found in igneous rocks. It occurs in rutile, ilmenite, sphene, and many other iron ores and titanates. Titanium is also found in coal, ash, plants, and even in the human body. Titanium is found in the sun and in meteorites. Rocks from the Apollo 17 mission to the moon contained up to 12.1% titanium, proving that the moon also has titanium. Rocks from earlier missions showed lower percentages of titanium.

Beryl

What is beryl?
Beryl is a very colorful type of gemstone, with colors ranging from green to pink. Beryl is known as the most expensive of all colored gems, and while many types are very bright and pretty, pure beryl is actually as clear as glass. Here is the beryl gem color chart, made by me:

• Pink Beryl- Morganite
• Red Beryl- Bixbite, a very rare gem
• Clear Beryl- Goshenite
• Yellow-green- Golden beryl, also called Heliodor, is the most common type of beryl.
• Blue Beryl- Blue beryls are actually either aquamarines or light colored beryl that has been heat treated, almost in the same way as blue topaz.

Beryl is a relatively hard stone, a 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale. The name comes from ancient Greek, beryllos, which means "precious blue-green color". This is fitting, since both aquamarines and emeralds are part of the beryl group.

The mystic beryl

There are many different myths depending on the color of beryl, and I will only list a few here.

Legend says that beryl was used to protect people from demons and evil spirits. Ancient literature says that Pliny used powdered beryl to cure eye injuries. It is also said to be used to treat disorders of the heart and spine.

Other legends about Beryl indicate it was used to promote cheerfulness and marital love, to retard laziness, and maintain youthfulness. Golden beryl is said to make one sympathetic and increase sincerity.

Tanzanite

What is tanzanite?

Tanzanite is a fairly new stone. Though it was first discovered and mined in 1967, in Tanzania, East Africa (hence it's name), it was only added to the official birthstone list by the American Gem Trade Association as an additional birthstone for December in October of 2002. 

Since tanzanite is one of the newest and most exotically colored gemstones, it is part of the Zoisite mineral species. This means that it can only be found in East Africa.

The color and hardness of tanzanite

Though tanzanite is considered by many to be a blue gem, as when it is mined it has a bluish color, it is often over-powered by the purple highlights in the gem. It can also be mined as a dull brown stone that needs to be routinely heat treated to bring out it's beautiful and rare color.

Tanzanite is a brittle and generally hard stone, a 6.5/7 on the Mohs scale of hardness. However, even though it can be worn daily, care should be taken to protect it from knocks, pressure and extreme temperature changes. Do not use a home ultrasonic to clean jewelry with tanzanite in it, as it can damage the gem very badly.

The mystic tanzanite

As tanzanite is a fairly new found gem, not much is known about its "mystical properties" and legends. The only one known about it is that it was Masai cattle herders that first noticed this stone some 30 years ago after a fire caused by lightning burned areas in Tanzania. The herders noticed that brown zoisite crystals had turned a deep blue-purple due to the heat from the fire.

Scandium

What is scandium?
Scandium is the 21st element in the periodic table of elements. It was discovered by Lars Nilson of Sweden in 1878. It's name actually ties in with how it was discovered, unlike some other elements: Scandium was named after Scandinavia. Nilson was attempting to isolate the element ytterbium from the minerals euxenite and gadolinite when he discovered scandium. These minerals, being found primarily in the Scandinavia region, gave scandium it's long-standing name.

Scandium has a very interesting look about it. As seen above, in metallic form it is a silvery-white metal, but when scandium is exposed to air, it tints the outer skeleton of the metal yellowish or pinkish, as seen in the picture to the left. Scandium is also a very light, airy, and relatively soft metal. Being so sensitive, it reacts rapidly to many acids.

What is scandium used for?
Scandium is a very useful element. Without scandium, there would be no such thing as the aquamarine, as the blue color of the gem is attributed to the presence of the scandium. Scandium is also found in the minerals thortveitite, euxenite and gadolinite.

 Scandium is also used to make high intensity lamps. Scandium iodide is added to mercury vapor lamps to produce a light source with a color resembling sunlight. The radioactive isotope is used as a tracer in refinery crackers for crude oil.

Chalcedony

What is chalcedony?
Chalcedony and its named varieties are well represented in various birthstone charts and can be found for all the months except for January, April, and November. It is also listed as a birthstone for all the Zodiac signs with the exceptions of Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio and Sagittarius.

In jewelry usage, the name Chalcedony is usually given only to the light blue, translucent and waxy forms of gems. Stone that are not light blue or waxy, but are also found in this group, include:

• Agate
• Jasper
• Petrified Wood
• Bloodstone
• Petrified Dinosaur Bone
• Fire Agate
• Tiger's Eye
• Chrysocolla
• Chrysoprase
• Onyx
• Sardonyx
• Carnelian

Chalcedony gems are found in almost every color including: white, gray, black, brown, brownish red, orange, yellow, light to dark green, blue, lavender or, in the case of agates and jaspers, combinations of those colors. The term chalcedony is derived from the name of the ancient Greek town Chalkedon in Asia Minor.


Where is chalcedony found?
Chalcedony is found everywhere in the world. However, as mentioned above, its name was derived from the Greek town of Chalkedon. It's name, though named for the town, is actually the name for a group of stones made of a microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline quartz, which means the quartz crystals are too small to be seen without high magnification.

The Mystic Chalcedony

Native American Indians believed chalcedony was a sacred stone and used it frequently in the spiritual ceremonies of the tribe. It is also thought to increase vitality, stamina, and endurance and to promote emotional balance and charity while relieving melancholy, fever, gallstones, and eye problems.

Calcium

What is calcium?
Calcium is one of the most important elements that your body needs in order to live. Calcium makes up most of your bones, and without enough calcium, it is easy to break your bones. Calcium is also the 5th most abundant element in the Earth's crust, making up 3% in the oceans and soils.

Vitamin D is the essential vitamin for calcium absorption by the human body. Vitamin D is transferred to a hormone which causes intestinal proteins, the ones responsible for calcium absorption, to be produced.

While calcium and its compounds are not considered to be toxic, ingesting too much calcium carbonate or antacids can cause milk-alkali syndrome, which is associated with hypercalcemia sometimes leading to fatal renal failure. Excessive consumption would be on the order of 10 g calcium carbonate/day, though symptoms have been reported upon ingesting as little as 2.5 g calcium carbonate daily.

The element is also essential for animal and plant nutrition. Calcium participates in many biochemical reactions, including building skeletal systems and moderating muscle action for animals. Also, animals need a good amount of calcium to survive. Weak bones can snap very easily, and to have strong bones you need to have a lot of calcium. Too much calcium can also be fatal to animals.

Where is calcium found?
Calcium isn't found free in nature, but it can be purified into a soft silvery-white alkaline earth metal from its natural form, which it the silver/grey metal seen above. Calcium is also found in the oceans and soils of the world, as mentioned above. As for its uses, calcium is used in many important everyday objects and foods, including:

• Many dairy products, such as cheeses, yogurts, and milk
• Cement
• Removing nonmetallic impurities from alloys
• A reduction agent in the preparation of other metals

A few little known facts about calcium:

1. Pure Calcium Metal reacts vigorously and sometimes violently when mixed with water and acids.
2. The element name "calcium" comes from the Latin word "calcis" meaning "lime".
3. Calcium has been known since the 1st century, when the ancient Romans were known to make lime from calcium oxide.
4. Though calcium has been known for thousands of years, it was not purified as an element until 1808 by Sir Humphrey Davy 

Poppy Jasper

What is Poppy Jasper?
Poppy Jasper is a famous type of jasper with rare orbicular  red and yellow dots of "poppy flowers". It is a brecciated jasper, meaning it probably came from sun-dried and oxidized iron-rich clay. The cracks in the jasper were filled in by other substances, giving it its rare look.


Jasper is from the quartz group. It is a microcrystalline type of quartz that can contain up to 20% foreign material. These foreign materials are what determine the color and appearance of the stone.

Because of the differences in foreign materials, jasper is rarely uniform in color, it is usually multi-colored, striped, and/or spotted, as seen in the picture to the right. Jasper is a relatively hard stone, and runs between 6.5 and 7 on the Mohs scale of hardness.

Where is Poppy Jasper found?
The most famous kind of Poppy Jasper, Morgan Hill Poppy Jasper, is found in the area of Morgan Hill, California, USA. Other popular jaspers are found in:

• Germany
• India
• Russia
• Pakistan
• France
• USA

The Mystic Jasper
Jaspers of all kinds have long been connected magical powers in just about every culture known to man. Jasper was used in Ancient European times as a "rain bringer" and it is an interesting and little known fact that the word for jasper in some American Indian cultures also meant, "Rain Bringer".

Also, Poppy Jasper was thought to be a kind of energizer, waking up areas of the body that appear to be sleeping. It is believed to encourage a deep connection with the life of the Earth. It inspires a positive, joyful attitude and gives the motivation and energy to take creative action. Jasper was also thought to drive away evil spirits and protect against snake and spider bites.

Azurite

What is Azurite?
Azurite is a very beautiful gemstone. It has an intense deep blue color. It is often found in places with malachite, chrysocolla, turquoise, and in areas with copper deposits. A rare form of azurite called "Bluebird", has dark red Cuprite mixed with azurite -  like the triangular gem in the bottom of the picture.

Azurite is a very soft gem, only a 3 1/2 on the Mohs scale of Hardness.  Some people think the name is derived from the Persian word lazhward or from the Arabic word azul, both of which mean blue.

Where is azurite found?

 Among other places, azurite is found in:

• Australia
• Chile
• France
• Mexico
• Morocco
• Nambia
• Southwestern USA
• Zaire

Azurite is not known as a birthstone, but signs show that it may have been used as the birthstone for Taurus. For thousands of year, azurite has been used in jewelry, ornaments, and even in the Middle Ages ground and used as makeup. It's no wonder, when you look at it's believed mystical powers:

Azurite was sacred to the Egyptians, who believed it was an aid to spiritual communication. Also, many believe that this stone helps to reduce anger and to increase psychic awareness. It is also thought to reduce abnormal cell growth, promote wisdom, and is used as an aid to relieve the pain of rheumatism.

Potassium

What is potassium?

Discovered by Sir Humphrey Davy in the 1800's, potassium is one of the most reactive and electropositive of metals. The only metal that is lighter than potassium is lithium. The silvery white metal is soft and easy to cut, so much so that it can be cut with a knife.

 The metal must be stored in a mineral oil, such as kerosene, as it oxidizes rapidly in air and catches fire spontaneously when exposed to water. Its decomposition in water evolves hydrogen. Potassium is sometimes called "potash", as it is the word potassium evolved from.

Potassium minerals, when burned, make a pretty purple flame. Also, potassium salts, when added to a fire, have the same effect on the color.

Where is potassium found?
Potassium is the 7th most abundant element on earth, making up 2.4% of the earth's crust, by weight. Potassium is not found free in nature. Potassium was the first metal isolated by electrolysis. Thermal methods are also used to produce potassium. Sylvite, langbeinite, carnallite, and polyhalite form extensive deposits in ancient lake and sea beds, from which potassium salts can be obtained. In addition to other locations, potash is mined in Germany, Utah, California, and New Mexico. Potassium can be found also in dirts, fertilizers and its minerals can be found in water, which brings us to our next subject:

What is potassium used for?
 Potash is in high demand for fertilizers. Also, as potassium is found in dirt, it is vital for plant growth and development.