Blue corundum is better known as a Sapphire. When iron interacts with corundum it produces a blue color. Marble also produces the much prized fluorescent rubies. The low iron content in marble allows it to produce rubies with especially intense red colors. Marble is a metamorphic rock that forms when heat and pressure from inside the earth’s crust contacts limestone deposits during mountain formation. The highest quality rubies typically form in marble. Geologists have been studying the formation of gems for some time and have discovered that most gem-grade corundum occur in metamorphic rocks (rocks that have formed due to high pressure and heat) such as schist or gneiss and igneous rocks (rock formed from lava flows that have cooled and solidified) such as basalt or syenite. A chemical element on the periodic table with symbol Cr and atomic number 24 it is a metal that appears grey and lustrous, as well as being hard but brittle it has a melting point over 3,400 Fahrenheit and resists tarnishing. Chromium gets its name from the Greek word chrōma, meaning color because many chromium compounds are intensely colored. Chromium imbues corundum with its red color and forms what is commonly known as a ruby. All colored gems have a corundum base which on its own is naturally transparent, but the transparency begins to display various colors when these trace elements are present. Corundum typically contains traces of iron, titanium, vanadium and/or chromium. Rubies are scientifically known as corundum, a rock-forming mineral and crystalline form of aluminium oxide which is two aluminium atoms and three oxygen atoms (Al2O3) in a close packed hexagonal structure. Rubies are also one of the cardinal stones (amethyst, sapphire, emerald, and diamonds make up the others), gemstones which have traditionally been considered precious above all others. Early cultures believed rubies held the power of life because of their similarity to blood, and rubies are mentioned four times in the Bible, associated with attributes like beauty and wisdom. The word ruby comes from ruber, Latin for red. Hence, of all the colored stones, rubies are the most expensive, demanding the highest per-carat price. Red is the color of our most intense emotions: love, anger, passion, and fury. There’s a reason red cars feel faster and red dresses command more attention.
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