The Daily Jewel - October Brings Us Opal...Today's #DailyJewel

I have always tried chose Daily Jewels that offer the Designer or Gem Cutter a little publicity boost, but this is a photo of ancient Scarab Jewelry that holds a Creative Commons license so I have very little info on the pieces.  But they are just so lovely I went with it anyway!

From a Geology page at Cochise College:
opal - opex33

Photo is copyright free for non-commercial educational uses.
Just credit photo to R.Weller/Cochise College.

Original Photo URL: http://skywalker.cochise.edu/wellerr/opals/jewelry/Egypt4.htm

Opal jewelry courtesy of Opex Opal
Specializing in precious opals and opal jewelry
Santa Barbara, California 93150

SoCal: 42nd Annual AOS OPAL & GEM SHOW

The American Opal Society proudly presents its: 42nd Annual OPAL & GEM SHOW Come visit the Biggest Opal Show in the USA!!! WHAT: * Dozens of Opal and Gem Dealers from around the USA and Australia. * Rough and Cut Opals, Opal Jewelry, other gemstones, books, tools, etc. * Huge Raffle with many prizes of opals, gemstones, jewelry, lapidary tools, etc. * Free Seminars on opals, jewelry making, mining and more on Saturday and Sunday. * Free Demonstrations on gemstone cutting, jewelry making, etc. WHEN: Saturday, 10am-6pm, November 7, 2009 Sunday, 10am-5pm, November 8, 2009 WHERE: New Location! White House / West Wing Event Center 1238 S. Beach Blvd. Anaheim, CA 92804 Located within the Hobby City / Adventure City southeast corner of Beach Blvd. and Ball St. Click here for Google Directions ADMISSION: Adults $3.00, children under 15 FREE. Plenty of FREE Parking. One FREE raffle ticket is included with each paid admission. http://www.opalsociety.org American Opal Society, Inc., P.O. Box 4875 Garden Grove, CA 92842-4875 Contact e-mail: info@opalsociety.org The American Opal Society is a non-profit organization, educational in nature, whose primary purpose is promoting interest and knowledge of the precious gemopal.

A Gem of a Find

An appropriate discovery - Opal is the birthstone for the month of October and at the end of October, this year, NASA made the following announcement:

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed Martian rocks containing a hydrated mineral similar to opal. The rocks are light-toned and appear cream-colored in this false-color image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera. Images acquired by the orbiter reveal that different layers of rock have different properties and chemistry. The opal minerals are located in distinct beds of rock outside of the large Valles Marineris canyon system and are also found in rocks within the canyon. The presence of opal in these relatively young rocks tells scientists that water, possibly as rivers and small ponds, interacted with the surface as recently as two billion years ago, one billion years later than scientists had expected. The discovery of this new category of minerals spread across large regions of Mars suggests that liquid water played an important role in shaping the planet's surface and possibly hosting life.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/20081028.html