Sapphire is a type of the mineral Corundum. Corundum was originally called kuruntam by Indians. Curundum is a large group, including many types of other valuable gemstones like ruby.
Sapphires come in a hardness of 9 so it is the second hardest mineral. Only diamond is harder.
Sapphires come in various crystal shapes and ray patterns. The many crystal shapes include prismatic, catseye, striated, tabular, star hexagon, and the fracture is uneven. The rays are called asterism. The rays come in various patterns including a six-rayed star pattern, and a large hexagonal pattern. the crystal weighs 2.9-4.1 pounds and may contain tubelike inclusions.
Sapphires come in many colours like clear, pink, clue, yellow, gray, white, green, violet, and florescent. Australian Sapphires turn black in articificial light. Sapphires leave a white streak. The colours green and dark blue are very valuable.
The Sapphire is trasparent and also nontransparent and translucent. Nontransparent is found in frains in rocks and used as abrasive.
Oriental Sapphires include some of the biggest like the India Star mined in Kasmir (India). Altogether it weighs 563 karats.Sapphire’s environment are in metamorphic, corderite, and in hornfills. Impurities inlcude iron and titanium. The Sapphire is a particle of Aluminum Oxide (AlO3).
Sapphires are found in Corundum hill in Colorado, North Carolina, Brazil, Ontario, Ceylon, Burma, Kasmir (India), Pennsylvania, Yugo Gultch, California, and in Connecticut.
The Sapphire is the birthstone for September.
The similar species for Sapphire is Feldspars.
