Emerald Emerald Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (BeAl(SiO)) colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the Mohs scale. Most emeralds are highly included, so their toughness (resistance to breakage) is classified as generally poor. Emerald is a cyclosilicate. The word "emerald" is derived (via and ), from Vulgar Latin: "esmaralda"/"esmaraldus", a variant of Latin "smaragdus", which originated in (smaragdos; "green gem"). Emeralds, like all colored gemstones, are graded using four basic parameters–the four "C"s of connoisseurship: "color", "clarity," "cut" and "carat weight". Normally, in the
Moonstone (gemstone) the Florida State Gemstone; it was designated as such in 1970 to commemorate the Moon landings, which took off from Kennedy Space Center. Despite it being the Florida State Gemstone, it does not naturally occur in the state. Moonstone (gemstone) Moonstone is a sodium potassium aluminium silicate ((Na,K)AlSiO) of the feldspar group that displays a pearly and opalescent schiller. An alternative name is "hecatolite". Its name is derived from a visual effect, sheen or schiller (play of color), caused by light diffraction within a micro-structure consisting of regular exsolution layers (lamellae) of different alkali feldspars (orthoclase and sodium-rich plagioclase). Moonstone