Hodgepodge 323/365 - Opals

Today we had lunch with our niece Erica and her husband, Terry, whose wedding we attended on May 12. We hadn't had much chance to chat with Terry before, so it was fun getting to know a little more about him. His profession is in social work/mental health (he used to run a large homeless shelter in Seattle, but since moving to LA he's been doing hospital intake). As a sideline, he buys raw opals and sells them to individuals on eBay.

That made me wonder about opals, "a hydrous silicon dioxide (SiO₂^.nH₂O)," according to geology.com.  "It is amorphous, without a crystalline structure, and without a definite chemical composition. Therefore it is a 'mineraloid' rather than a 'mineral.' " (The "n" in the formula indicates that the amount of water is variable.)

Ninety percent of the world's precious opal comes from Australia, but it's also found in the United States (e.g., Constellation Mine in Spencer, Idaho, source of the "harlequin opal" shown above; also Louisiana), Mexico, Hungary, Indonesia, Brazil, Peru, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Slovakia, Czech Republic, and Ethiopia. There's also opal on Mars! Really!

Instead of an engagement ring, David gave me an opal pendant (white opal, perhaps from Coober Pedy, South Australia?). I love opal.

If you want to see the full array of opal types—there are lots, and not all of them flashy—go here. This site has great photos and descriptions of the many opals in the world, including blue, morado, pinfire, cat's-eye, Andamooka, Ethiopian, Honduras black. It's well worth a visit if you'd like to learn more.

To close, here's a poem by Amy Lowell (1874–1925):

Opal

You are ice and fire,
The touch of you burns my hands like snow.
You are cold and flame.
You are the crimson of amaryllis,
The silver of moon-touched magnolias.
When I am with you,
My heart is a frozen pond
Gleaming with agitated torches.