Welcome to the amazing world of crystals,
gemstones, rocks and minerals!
Most of the crystals and
minerals in this glossary are in the personal collection of the author,
and were photographed by his wife, Suzanne. How many crystals mentioned in the trilogy can you spot?
But first - here are some photos of an abandoned mine!
Click any picture on this page to enlarge
But first - here are some photos of an abandoned mine!
Click any picture on this page to enlarge
Note! As you learned from the books, old mines are VERY DANGEROUS PLACES, so NEVER EVER GO INSIDE!
Agate (Brazil) Banded Agate (Brazil) Laguna Agate (Mexico) Vein Agate (USA) Blue Agate (Mexico)
Blue Agate (Mexico) Blue Lace Agate Botswana Agate Botswana Agate Crazy Lace Agate
Agate (Devon, UK) Queensland Agate Dulcote Agate (UK) Vein Agate Green Moss Agate
Alexandrite Amethyst Geode (Brazil) Polished Amethysts Chevron Amethyst (UK) Ammonite Fossil (UK)
Aquamarine in Quartz Aquamarine Crystals Aventurine (India) Azurite Azurite and Malachite
Bloodstone (India) Polished Carnelians Celestite Geode Calcite Crystals Blue Chalcedony
Grey Chalcedony Brown Chalcedony Polished Citrines Chrysophrase (Australia) Native Copper
Diamond! Emerald in host rock Emerald Green Fluorite Purple & Green Fluorite
Honey Fluorite (UK) Purple Fluorite & Galena Galena on Quartz Natural Rough Garnets Polished Garnets
Geode (Brazil) Geode (Brazil) Geode (Mexico) Geode (Mexico) Geode (Mexico)
Geode (Somerset, UK) Geode (Somerset) Geode (Somerset) Amethyst Geode Amethyst Geode
Geode (Mexico) Gold! Gold (Devon, UK!) Hematite (Cumbria, UK) Hematite
Hemimorphite Carved Nephrite Jade Brecciated Jasper (Devon) Brecciated Jasper Ocean Jasper
Red Jasper (Devon, UK) Zebra Jasper Kyanite (USA) Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli Beads
Magnetite (Lodestone) Natural Malachite Polished Malachite Marcasite Mica
Moonstone Mother of Pearl Black Onyx Opal as found Freshwater Pearls
Felspar (Pegmatite) Polished Peridots Peridots in Lava Pitchblende! Prehnite
Pyrite (Fool's Gold) Pyrite with Turquoise Rock Crystal (Quartz) * Herkimer 'Diamond' * Herkimer 'Diamond'
Rock Crystals (Quartz) Rose Quartz Rutilated Quartz Smoky Quartz Rhodochrosite
Rhodonite Rubies in Zoisite Ruby Sapphires Star Sapphire
Selenite Serpentine Blue Sodalite Sphalerite Tektites - from Space!
Tiger's Eye Golden Topaz Crystals Blue Topaz Green Tourmaline Turquoise
* Herkimer 'Diamonds' are beautiful single quartz crystals (rock crystal) from Herkimer, New York - not real diamonds.
Here are a few more mineralogical and mining terms!
Adit - The name given to a horizontal mine tunnel, just like the ones Star and Jasper travelled in the Land of Gems. You can see what the entrance to an adit looks like at the top of this page.
Stope - This is where the miners would dig down from an adit (an underhand stope) or up (a rising stope) following a vein of ore. Old stopes are very dangerous!
Deads - The term given to waste rock which has to be mined to reach the vein of ore. On a rising stope, miners would usually make platforms of logs on which to pile the deads, to save having to haul them out of the mine.
Ore - This is any mineral which, when smelted, becomes a metal. Cassiterite, for example, when smelted, becomes tin and if you smelt Galena, you get lead and - usually - silver.
Vug - A hollow or fissure which develops inside a rock. If a vug occurs on a pegmatite vein, the crystals can be spectacularly large, and this is where most gemstones are found.
Pegmatite - This is where crystals in the rock have become unusually large, usually due to the way the rock cooled. When you find a vug on a pegmatite vein - hey presto!
Inclined Shaft - Sometimes a mine has a vertical shaft, sometimes an adit, and sometimes an inclined shaft - or all three! Inclined shafts usually have rails so that ore trucks can be let down into the mine on steel cables.
Mine truck - In the old days, miners used to push ore and waste rock out of an adit using an iron truck running on iron rails. You can often see the remains of old mine trucks near abandoned mines - but most of them don't talk!
Stope - This is where the miners would dig down from an adit (an underhand stope) or up (a rising stope) following a vein of ore. Old stopes are very dangerous!
Deads - The term given to waste rock which has to be mined to reach the vein of ore. On a rising stope, miners would usually make platforms of logs on which to pile the deads, to save having to haul them out of the mine.
Ore - This is any mineral which, when smelted, becomes a metal. Cassiterite, for example, when smelted, becomes tin and if you smelt Galena, you get lead and - usually - silver.
Vug - A hollow or fissure which develops inside a rock. If a vug occurs on a pegmatite vein, the crystals can be spectacularly large, and this is where most gemstones are found.
Pegmatite - This is where crystals in the rock have become unusually large, usually due to the way the rock cooled. When you find a vug on a pegmatite vein - hey presto!
Inclined Shaft - Sometimes a mine has a vertical shaft, sometimes an adit, and sometimes an inclined shaft - or all three! Inclined shafts usually have rails so that ore trucks can be let down into the mine on steel cables.
Mine truck - In the old days, miners used to push ore and waste rock out of an adit using an iron truck running on iron rails. You can often see the remains of old mine trucks near abandoned mines - but most of them don't talk!
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