Gemstones Are Raining Down Near Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano, Reports Say
Hawaii's Kilauea volcano, which has been very active for more than a month now, has plenty of time to spew out lava, boulders, and all kinds of hidden matter from under the Earth's crust. Residents have also found, to their surprise, that the volcano has also coughed up gemstones.
Most of these gemstones are the green to yellow-green crystals of olivine, an otherwise unremarkable common mineral, as Science Alert pointed out. After all, the substance it is made of, Magnesium Iron silicate, is one of the most common mineral to be found just below the Earth's surface.
Olivine also makes up the green sand of some of the beaches in Hawaii, including tha Papakolea beach and surrounding areas, as Forbes noted. Finding the mineral as particulates or mixed in with other rocks and minerals is so common that geologists estimate that more than 50 percent of the Earth's upper mantle is made up of the stuff, or other minerals similar to it.
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Usually, slow trickles of lave and molten rock from the Kilauea Volcano will place down olivine in a more or less homogenous mix with other minerals. That is not the case this time, though, since the recent eruptions has a surprising effect on the composition of the hot magma.
Magma sprayed into the air by the eruptions resulted to rapid cooling of the mineral, leaving them as the distinctive green pebbles that easily stand out among the dark igneous rocks around the volcano.
These small chunks of olivine are already considered rare, but rarer still are some of the jewelry-grade crystals that are now found among the rocks and ash from recent explosions of the Kilauea volcano.
When appraised as gemstones, they are also known as peridots, and recognized by the American Gem society as one of the birth stones for those born in the month of August.
