Dr. Sid Williams Mineralogical analysis

Consulting Petrographer. Globo De Plomo

Co-Author of Mineralogy of Arizona

Nebula Stone

Please click on Nebula Stone Mineral Sphere image to enlarge

When we discovered Nebula Stone in 1994 we sent samples to Dr. Leslie Hale with the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. George with The American Museum of Natural History, Dr. Sid Williams of Globo De Plomo, Dr. Dave Douglas researcher UCLA, Dr. Vergil Leuth with New Mexico School of Mines, Dr. Bruce Geller of Geo Concepts Unlimited Bolder Colorado (Melody's mineralogist) and others. Nebula Stone was analyzed using X-ray Dispersion Analysis (EDX) in a Scanning Electron Microscope (Microprobe/SEM), Polished Section Analysis, XES Elemental Analysis, XES Search (@1/4), Digital Imaging, Photomicrographs, Back-Scattered Electron Detector (BSE), Petrographic Analysis and X-ray Diffraction and the Electron Microprobe.

The Nebula Stone description below is from the World renowned mineralogical Petrologist Dr. Sid Williams.

The technical description of the Nebula Stone may not be much fun to read but at least it would be familiar to a professional geologist if it were in your interest to use it in that manner. In plain English stripped of jargon it means that this stone is a fresh and unusual alkalic volcanic rock composed of the minerals Quartz, Anorthoclase, Riebeckite, Aegirine. Quartz and Anorthoclase form the groundmass of the gem, while Riebeckite and Aegirine are an integral part of the spherulites. The darker matrix is richer in Riebeckite and also contains more Quartz and Anorthoclase. The light green spherules you see in the stone composed of radiating fibers are riebeckite needles mantled with fine grained Aegirine.

This stone evolved from inside the Earth with it's discrete rare combination of minerals cooling and crystallizing forming as a glassy unit that devitrified slowly under quiescent conditions. Spherulitic structures began to develop in the glass by virtue of devitrification while other portions of the glass residium remained slightly mobile, showing streaky structure around those domains in an advanced state of crystallization. Ultimately the glass base also devitrified under static conditions. This has produced a matrix of Quartz and Anorthoclase which occur in complex intergrowth. typically the Anorthoclase is present as slender lath-like crystals or feathery club-shaped prisms (points) floating in an interstitial filigree of Quartz. Within spherulites Anorthoclase is predominant and there is less Quartz for it appears to have segregated from these domains during crystallization."Lying side by side with the anorthoclase laths are slender prisms (points) of Riebeckite which may attain considerable length and yet never exceed 10 or 12u in width. The matrix of the stone contains considerably more clear Quartz-rich vein-forms and in places it has grown nearly at the exclusion of Anorthoclase. However, needles of Riebeckite still lie within these minerals and their common orientation is suggestive of flow banding around spherulites. Granular Aegirine occurs in the matrix where it appears to have replaced or supplanted Riebeckite almost entirely and the largest grains occur in late magmatic vein-forms carrying clear granular Quartz. Aegirine occurs within spherulites and it lies side by side with Riebeckite needles and appears to replace their margins.

What this means is that the minerals were once molten and glass-like but cooled very slowly, allowing the discrete minerals to begin to separate out and crystallize so the final product had lost its glass-like condition. This allowed the green (orbicules or spherulites) to form as the different component minerals cooled and crystallized at various rates.

I have sent a small packet to you under separate cover. It contains the rock sample I borrowed from you, the thin section, and a couple of photomicrographs. Photo (01) shows a partial termination of a quartz crystal and perhaps this is a "point"; I cannot imagine any other definition of the term. Photo (02) - number not visible for some reason - shows a similar situation, although the crystals not so well defined. However, the specimen I borrowed shows numerous terminated quartz prisms in the matrix.

Sincerely Sidney Williams

Globo de Plomo

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“It is unlike anything any of us have ever seen”
“I cannot find anything like it in the literature.”
“This rock is obviously something New or at least Unusual.”

Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences

American Museum of Natural History

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"Your specimen is nephrite, a variety of jade. To determine
this I looked at a thin section. What makes it unusual is the fact
that it has orbicular structure. “Orbicular” implies that the rock
contains “concentric shells of different texture and/or mineralogy
about a central core.”

...and afterwards by phone they said their conclusion of Nephrite was in error and then said “We have never seen this type stone and cannot figure out what it is and where it came from.”

Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History
Rock and Ore Collection

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"Jadeite, a member of the pyroxene group has the formula: (NA, AL, FE) SI₂ 0₆.
This is a much better fit to your X-ray energy dispersive analysis (EDX) results.
In conclusion I think it is Jadeite, and perhaps the special version Chloromelanite."

Dr. Dave Douglass

                                             Douglass minerals
                                                    Retired mineralogical researcher UCLA.
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"It is a fresh and Unusual alkalik volcanic rock predominantly composed of the four minerals Quartz, Anorthoclase, Riebeckite and Aegirine. The light green spherules you see in the stone composed of radiating fibers are Riebeckite needles mantled with fine grained Aegirine. The darker matrix is richer in Riebeckite and also contains more Quartz.”

Dr. Sid Williams

                                                   Consulting Petrographer. Globo De Plomo
                                                    Co-Author of Mineralogy of Arizona
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"Is It Just Lovely and Mesmerizing, or Mystical Too?"

You may have seen a new lapidary material being offered for sale recently. It's called "Nebula StoneTM," and is a dark-green, nearly black, shiny material with fascinating, light-green, swirling orbicules scattered through the dark matrix. These inclusions make the rock look like the night sky viewed through a telescope, wherein you see galaxies, nebulae and individual stars scattered against a dark background- hence, the name Nebula Stone.

"It is highly regarded as an energy stone and healing stone by people who are metaphysically attuned."

"The stone now enjoyed by the mineralogist, the lapidary and the spiritually inclined alike."

Bob Jones, Senior Editor

Rock and Gem Magazine

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Unpolished Nebula Stone Nugget Nebula stone Mineralogical page

A note to Mineral Collectors

We have pages for those interested in the Scientific, the Geologic, the Mineralogical and the Esoteric for our many customers of varied interests.

Webster's dictionary: Esoteric/Metaphysical: Other than Physical. Relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses.

I received a call from a gruff sounding gentleman that wanted to know about Nebula Stone. I didn't know what his interests were so I mentioned that he could read some of the stuff on the pages on our web site. I mentioned that there was scientific, Geologic/Mineralogical, Rock Hounding articles and esoteric/metaphysical writings.

He then said (real load) "Oh, I don't believe in that metaphysical Crap"

whereupon I asked

" Well then... tell me this.

"What... is... more... metaphysical... than the... belief... in God...?"

....silence on the other end of the phone.

Then he said... "hmm... I see."... then he laughed and said "Thank you for that."

We sell to all Mineral collectors no matter their belief systems. We are happy to help everyone in obtaining a fine mineral specimen for their collections. Nebula Stone is a recent geological, mineralogical discovery, with a unique combination of minerals, named for it's Cosmological resemblance.

(the gentleman did acquire a fine Specimen for his collection.)

STARDUST TO STARDUST

Every atom in your body is billions of years old. Hydrogen, the most common element in the universe and a major feature of your body, was produced in the big bang 13.7bn years ago. Heavier atoms such as carbon and oxygen were forged in stars between 7bn and 12bn years ago, and blasted across space when the stars exploded. Some of these explosions were so powerful that they also produced the elements heavier than iron, which stars can't construct. This means that the components of your body are truly ancient: You are stardust.

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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan Cosmos Carl Sagan We are made of Star Stuff, We are in the Universe and the Universe is within us. "Just like the Nebulas, Just like Ourselves...Everything is Reborn and Continues".

Carl Sagan

Soon after entering elementary school, he began to express a strong inquisitiveness about nature.
Sagan recalled taking his first trips to the public library alone, at the age of five, when his mother got him a library card.
He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his friends or their parents could give him a clear answer:

"I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars ...
And the answer was stunning.
It was that the Sun was a star but really close.
The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little points of light ...
The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious experience.
There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never ever left me."*

We are made of Star Stuff, We are in the Universe and the Universe is within us.

"Just like the Nebulas, Just like Ourselves...Everything is Reborn and Continues".

"Keep Looking up" Jack Horkheimer 1938-2010

Jack Horkheimer " Keep Looking up." Stargazer Nebula Stone Mineralogical page