Where can I find free information (online)for my sons 3rd grade research?

Question

project on opals? Thanks

Answer 1

You can paste these sites into your browser. I am not sure what exactly you want to know but these sites tell the history and facts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opal
http://www.gemstone.org/gem-by-gem/english/opal.html
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/8104sci3.html
http://www.opalmine.com.hk/menu4.html
http://www.minerals.net/mineral/silicate/tecto/quartz/opal.htm
http://www.gbjewelers.com/education/opals/opal-information.html
http://www.costellos.com.au/opals/history.html

Answer 2

Take your pick! Thousands of sites are available:
http://www.google.com/search?q=opals&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Answer 3

by visit this site below
http://pregnancyandbaby.com
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good luck

Answer 4

opal
Encyclopædia Britannica Article



Carved opal
Harold and Erica Van Pelt

silica mineral extensively used as a gemstone, a submicrocrystalline variety of cristobalite (q.v.). In ancient times opal was included among the noble gems and was ranked second only to emerald by the Romans. In the Middle Ages it was supposed to be lucky, but in modern times it has been regarded as unlucky.

Opal is fundamentally colourless, but such material is rarely found. Disseminated impurities generally impart to opal various dull body colours that range from the yellows and reds derived from iron oxides to black from manganese oxides and organic carbon. The milkiness of many white and gray opals is attributable to an abundance of tiny gas-filled cavities in them. Black opal, with a very dark gray or blue to black body colour, is particularly rare and highly prized. White opal, with light body colours, and fire opal, characterized by yellow, orange, or red body colour, are much more common.

Precious opals are translucent to transparent and are distinguished by a combination of milky to pearly opalescence and an attractive play of many colours. These colours flash and change as a stone is viewed from different directions and are caused by interference of light along minute cracks and other internal inhomogeneities.

Opal is deposited from circulating waters in such varied forms as nodules, stalactitic masses, veinlets, and encrustations and is widely distributed in nearly all kinds of rocks. It is most abundant in volcanic rocks, especially in areas of hot-spring activity. It also forms pseudomorphs after wood and other fossil organic matter and after gypsum, calcite, feldspars, and many other minerals that it has replaced. As the siliceous material secreted by organisms such as diatoms and radiolarians, opal constitutes important parts of many sedimentary accumulations.

The finest gem opals have been obtained from South Australia, Queensland, and New South Wales in Australia; the Lightning Ridge field is famous for superb black stones. Deposits of white opal in Japan, fire opal in Mexico and Honduras, and several varieties of precious opal in India, New Zealand, and the western United States also have yielded much gem material. Most of the precious opal marketed in ancient times was obtained from occurrences in what is now Slovakia. Various forms of common opal are widely mined for use as abrasives, insulation media, fillers, and ceramic ingredients.

Fire opals usually are facet cut, but most other precious opals are finished en cabochon because their optical properties are best displayed on smoothly rounded surfaces. Undersized fragments are used for inlay work, and small pieces scattered throughout a natural matrix are commonly sold under the name root of opal. Because opal may crack or lose its colour if it dries, many finished stones are protected by water or films of oil until they are sold. Opals absorb liquids very readily. An extremely porous variety, known as hydrophane, can absorb surprising quantities of water; it is almost opaque when dry but nearly transparent when saturated. Light-coloured stones are often dyed to resemble rarer, more deeply coloured varieties.



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silica mineral
Encyclopædia Britannica Article


Individual silica minerals Opal
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Opal is poorly crystalline or amorphous hydrous silica that is compact and vitreous and most commonly translucent white to colourless. Precious opal reflects light with a play of brilliant colours across the visible spectrum, red being the most valued. Opal forms by precipitation from silica-bearing solutions near the Earth's surface. Electron microscopy has shown that many opals are composed of spheres of tens to a few thousand angstroms in size that are arranged in either hexagonal or cubic close packing. The spheres are composed of hydrous silica that may be either almost cristobalite-like, tridymite-like, mixtures of both, or random and nondiffracting. The specific gravity and refractive index are lower than those of pure silica minerals. The play of colours in precious opal arises from the diffraction of light from submicroscopic layers of regularly oriented silica spheres. When heated, opal may lose as much as 20 percent of its weight of water, fracture, and then crystallize to one of the silica minerals described above.

Opal usually contains 4 to 9 percent water, but lower and much higher values have been observed. The contents of alumina, ferric oxide, and alkalis are variable but may amount to several percent in light-coloured opals and more if pigmenting minerals are also present. Precious opal has been synthesized. Opaline silica is a friable hydrous silica found near hot springs and geysers.



To cite this page:
MLA style:
" silica mineral ." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Oct. 2006 . APA style:
silica mineral . (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 25, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-80057