A brief look at the famous emerald and alexandrite from Russia's Ural Mountain mines.

An exploration of the history and lore of the Emerald Buddha, a green statue that resides in Bangkok, Thailand’s Wat Phra Kaeo and watches over Thailand.

One of the greatest gemological challenges is determining if a ruby or sapphire has been heat treated. UV fluorescence can assist in that identification, as well as detecting fillers in emerald.

This article discusses the use of handheld long-wave ultraviolet torches with the microscope. It has been found that these have tremendous utility in identifying and characterizing certain oiled gemstones, such as emerald, tourmaline, etc.

Gübelin, Eduard J. & Koivula, John I. (2005) Photoatlas of Inclusions in Gemstones, Volume 2. Opinio Publishers, Basel, Switzerland, 830 pp. ISBN 978-3855040957