Further studies of the Chelyabinsk  meteorite from last year has seen jadeite within glassy shock veins, which suggests it had been bumping around before landing. Interesting unlike other examples this jadeite appears to have crystallised from being melted. Studies of this kind are important because impacts overhead can of course alter projected paths of near earth objects (NEO).

Want a little consistency when buying your diamonds, well PhotoScribe have been granted a patent to use a laser to measure the brilliance, fire, scintillation, contrast, optical symmetry and coverage. The results will translated into grades. The new application will measure the “beauty of a diamond”

Hallmarking Rise
For those involved in the jewellery industry hallmarking figures for April show yet another increase for gold and silver with 9ct gold having the largest at almost 50% definitely an indicator for the remainder of 2014.

Researchers suggest after studying Acasta Gneiss complex rocks from Canada (over 4 billion years old) that Iceland is representative of how early earth was with magma rising in shallow water also containing volcanic debris, plate tectonics may not have been present at this time.

Fancy adding a specimen of bridgmanite (a silicate mineral with perovskite) to your collection, although the most abundant mineral on the planet, it might be a little difficult because it’s approximately 400 - 1800 miles underground. After various experiments and studying seismic data scientists are convinced what the mineral is but needed a natural example to document the mineral structure, studying the Tenham meteorite using synchrotron X-ray diffraction identified the mineral as MgSiO3 the meteorite had been highly shocked on it’s journey which is similar to the effects of pressure and heat within the earth, University of Nevada researcher Tschaunder said “Shocked meteorites are the only accessible source of natural specimens of minerals that we know to be rock-forming in the transition zone of the Earth”.

Professor Takeshi Kakegawa from Tohoku University Japan has found high concentrations of Boron in Greenlands Isua’s marine rocks, boron can stabilise Ribose a component of RNA which its believed is a precursor to life. The Boron being an element of tourmaline was trapped in garnet crystals on the sea floor after lava, sediments were deposited. Further researchers suggest that Boron could’ve been present in the sea water throughout this time period up to today.