Gifts of the Earth: Precious Things Quiz

Answer: Daria-i-Noor

Daria-i-Noor - at 182 carats, originally from India, its current whereabouts is open to debate, either now part of the Iranian Crown Jewels or preserved in a vault in Bangladesh.

Uncle Sam - Largest discovered in USA in 1924, pale brown in colour, discovered in Murfreesboro, Arkansas with an uncut weight of 40.23 carats.

Williamson Pink - From Tanzania, given to Elizabeth II on her wedding in 1947, later incorporated into a broach.

Graff Pink - From India, this most expensive jewel sold at a 2010 auction for a staggering $46 million (£29 million). (chears58)

Answer: Brown and shaped like little crosses

In a legend, a stranger told the fairies the story of Christ and how frightened and jealous men captured him and nailed his hands and feet to a cross, leaving him to perish. The fairies started crying at such a sad tale and their magical tears fell upon the earth, crystallizing in the shape of small crosses.

The stones are actually staurolite (from the Greek Stauros, "cross"), a combination of silica, iron and aluminum. It crystallizes at 60 and 90 degree angles thus resulting in the cross shapes. The crosses were probably formed under great heat and pressure in the creation of the Appalachian Mountains. You can go to the park and try to find some for yourself for free! They are typically shaped like St. Andrews (X) and Roman (+) crosses.

They were also part of a yearly Cherokee Spring Equinox ceremony. They have been considered a symbol of good luck and faith by the Cherokee for centuries. (darkgnome101)

Answer: Rose Gold

Rose gold, once known as 'Russian Gold' was popular in the 1800s and is now once again fashionable. An alloy of gold, copper and silver, it is also called Red Gold or Pink Gold and has a beautiful warm tone: the higher the percentage of copper present the more reddish it will appear, whereas rose and pink shades contain more silver.

White Gold is gold with a percentage of one or more of the white metals such as silver, palladium or zinc.

Green Gold, a.k.a. Electrum, is a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver with a greenish yellow appearance. It was used in ancient times, decoratively in Old Kingdom Egypt and in 7th century BC Lydia (Turkey) to make the earliest metal coins.

Black Gold is best known as a modern term for crude oil but can be produced by electroplating and other techniques. This is not the same as 'Black Hills Gold' which is a type of jewelry manufactured uniquely in South Dakota since its gold rush days (1874) and adopted as the official State jewelry. It uses the alloys described above to produce multi-toned pieces typically featuring grape leaves and other natural motifs. (avriljean)

Answer: Sedimentary and volcanic rock

"Geode" is derived from the Greek word "geoides", meaning earthlike. It is a round hollow rock with an internal cavity lined with crystals. Geodes can be formed in cavities, including bubbles in volcanic rock, animal burrows, tree roots, and mud balls in sedimentary rock. Gradually the outer sphere hardens and silica precipitate forms on the inner walls. Taking thousands of years, the layers of silica cool at various temperature rates because of differing types of minerals deposited as precipitate. Usually silica precipitates are mainly clear quartz, but amethyst (purple quartz), jasper, agate and other silicates are seen as well. Occasionally calcite (calcium carbonate) crystals are also found.

Geodes are often cut open and polished for use as decorative displays. There are many easily accessed sites in the United States, as well as Mexico, Brazil and Namibia. California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada have popular sites for collectors and rockhounds. Iowa even has the geode as its state rock and has several nice sites for collecting as well. Southern California has a concentration of sites in Riverside and Imperial counties. These include Houser Geode Beds, North Black Hills Geode Beds, and Cinnamon Geode Beds. Collectors can also buy sets to open at home. Even kits to grow your own are available. I made some nice ones myself! (Darkgnome101)

Answer: Little Willie

Found in the River Tay by pearl diver Willie Abernethy, the Little Willie Pearl, also known as the Abernethy Pearl, weighs 2.2 gms and is about the size of a marble. It's not the size, but the quality of the lustre, its subtle pale pink overtones, and its perfect spherical shape which puts it into the highest quality category.

Freshwater pearls are found in mussels which live in rivers and lakes. They were once common in Scotland but have been decimated by overfishing and by pollution from industrialisation. This genus (Margaritifera) is now amongst the most endangered molluscs on earth. In 1998, the Scottish government made it illegal to kill or in any way disturb them. (avriljean)

Answer: Not Drunken

In Greek mythology, the maiden Amethystos prayed to the Goddess Artemis to protect her from the pursuit of the drunken God Dionysus. She obliged by turning her into a white stone. Remorseful, Dionysus cried tears of wine onto the stone, turning it purple. I presume he'd been drinking red wine as opposed to white wine.

There are varying themes on this story, but all with more or less the same ending. The Greek god Dionysus was known to the Romans as Bacchus.
Amethyst has supposed properties to prevent intoxication, hence it was often used to fashion wine goblets or worn to prevent the wearer from the effects of alcohol. (chears58)

Answer: Cyanobacteria

The build up of oxygen on earth has been dubbed 'The Great Oxygen Event' or 'The Oxygen Catastrophe' (catastrophic to the anaerobic organisms then alive).

Cyanobacteria, aka blue-green algae, were the first organisms to employ photosynthesis (converting sunlight and water to energy, releasing oxygen as waste).

Ancient volcanoes also had a role to play - geologists can see that cyanobacteria were producing oxygen from an earlier date but it was being stripped from the atmosphere by the predominantly undersea volcanoes. This changed when the land stabilised and volcanic activity increased on the surface.

The ancestors of fish arrived in the Cambrian period around five million years ago. They didn't give us oxygen but they did evolve a design - backbone, head, tail, etc., that eventually gave us our bodies.

The first trees came later in the Devonian.

The Hollies had a hit with the song 'The Air that I Breathe' in 1974. (avriljean)

Answer: Coral rock

An old friend from the Chicago area just took her youngest son on a road trip to find a Petoskey stone - composed of the fossilized remnants of a coral reef. Throw in a bit of glaciation to break off pieces and send them tumbling miles from their original outcropping, and now modern day rock hunters can collect them. Many can be found already smoothed by nature, but they can be polished to show their beauty - almost like a millefiori design. The stone is the State Stone of Michigan.

There is no Harvey Petoskey- at least, not a famous ball player...

Petoskey is in the lower section of Michigan, so it would be doubtful that there would be many residents with dual US/Canada citizenship...

And there is no haunted highway...
(babsr)

Answer: In forested areas near trees, about 6 inches deep between the organic litter and limestone soil.

These underground mushrooms look like little potatoes of beige, yellowish or brown coloring. They form a symbiotic relationship with certain trees, with the truffles and the tree roots drawing nutrients from each other.

Truffle hunters use a small rake to gently pull back the top layer of organic matter to reveal them in the limestone soil beneath. They rely on animals eating them to spread their spores for growth.

Female pigs have been used for rooting them out, since the truffles exude a pheromone scent similar to a boar's saliva. Dogs can also be trained to find truffles, with the benefits of not eating them, plus ease of transport. Seems it is easier to haul a dog around rather than a pig. Looking for signs that wild animals have been digging can also be helpful. (darkgnome 101)

Answer: Ganges

The length of the River Ganges is 2,525 km (1560 miles). It is considered a sacred river for Hindus, named for the goddess Ganga, who liberates the greatest of sinners. It originates at Devaprayag, Uttarakhand where the Bhagirati and Alaknanda rivers join; they are considered the headstreams of the Ganges. (LoveAnimals555)