PS/IS113 Dawn Lugo
701 10/9/14 Minerals

Uses

My mystery mineral is a popular gemstone used as a dream stone. People who suffer from insomnia, which have trouble sleeping would place the stone under their pillow to help them dream of pleasant thoughts. Another way this stone is used is to relieve headaches, by rubbing the stone across ones forehead. Many people also use this stone for healing the body, mind and soul, by placing the stone on the area they want to heal or any area of the body. It is known to also help people who have trouble breathing, hearing disorders and to relieve stress. Some use it for meditation, psychic abilities and for balance. Most important use for this stone is the beautiful color and shine especially when wore as jewelry everyday or for special occasions.

Characteristics

This stone has nice cool crystal shapes that are clean and clear and with a sparkling cluster. Its named after a Greek meaning "not drunken", because it's known to ward off effects of alcohol. It's considered a mineral because the stone is created from a mineral called Quartz. It's crystallized with a crystal system called rhombohedral class 32 and with a crystal structure that is trigonal or hexagonal prisms. This stone is inexpensive and can be mined in many countries with different types depending on where it is formed. It's mined in Brazil (large crystal pale color), Canada (red) Uruguay (dark medium grey or brown), South Africa (large crystals) USA (violet or purple), Vera Cruz Mexico (pale or clear prismatic), Guerrero Mexico (dark purple prismatic crystal), etc. As you can see it's considered a mineral with a crystal pattern, it's natural occurring, it's solid and inorganic. It occurs as long prismatic crystals that have a six sided pyramid and often cut round.

Properties

Color

It's a popular color is unparalleled and has a beautiful color. This gemstone has various shades of purple and when heated or expose to light for a long time will fade. It can transform to citrine, can change to yellow-orange, yellow-brown, dark brown or to a green color called prasiolite. Color is used for royalty and by the rich and powerful. Color turns violet due to iron and manganese in it.

Cleavage/fracture

This gemstone has no cleavage, has a conchoidal fracture, which is a fracture that looks like ripples of mussel shell and are curved. When it's broken you will get a curve breakage and design with ripples resembling a mussel shell.

Luster

The luster this stone has is a vitreous, glossy luster, because of its transparency that shows when light goes through it.

Streak

This stone leaves a streak of white when rub on a tile or glass.

Specific gravity

To find out my minerals specific gravity, I first looked at its ratio of density of its volume to the same volume of water. This stone specific gravity is 2.65, because the cubic inch is 2.65 times as much as inch of water.

Hardness

This stone has a hardness of 7 on the moh's scale.

Testing

This Precious stone is made of distinct mineral crystals. To determine the identity it can been done through a scratch test using a hardness scale and this is how to find out that the hardness of 7. Compared to glass It is harder and will scratch it. It is not flammable and it has a different density than glass.

To determine the luster of my stone I held it up to the light and determined it had a glossy and vitreous luster and also noticed the light passing through it, since it is translucent.

When Scraped the gem against a streak plate or glass, the stone being a variety of Quartz gives a white streak.

Can you guess my mineral?

Amethyst, the birth stone of February, It is also the birth stone for the Zodiac sign of Pisces. It is considered a Gem of Spring, and usually given as a gem on the 4th, 6th and 17th wedding anniversaries.

Its awesome color symbolizes magic, mystery, creativity, spirituality, sub-conscious. People who like the color are compassionate, sensitive and gentle.