Championjewelery.us

Most of the sparkling gemstones and colourful clusters of minerals which adorn our collections were formed many millions of years ago and seem to us to symbolise the everlasting and indestructible. Compared with the span of human life they are indeed everlasting, but looked at from a geologist’s point of view they form but part of the geological cycle of continuous formation and destruction. New minerals are constantly being formed in countless areas within and on the earth, and at the same time others are being changed or completely destroyed.

Minerals can be formed in a number of ways: they may crystallise from molten magma, volcanic gases or aqueous solutions, or they may be re-crystallised from solid material. The rocks formed by crystallisation from magma within the crust, or from the lava which has been brought to the surface through volcanic necks or fissures, are termed igneous or eruptive rocks. On the earth’s surface these rocks are attacked by the agents of weathering—wind, frost, water and ice. These are responsible for their chemical solution or mechanical disintegration.