New Tanzanite
Misleading commercial name for gem-quality iolite, a violet-blue variety of the mineral cordierite. Using the name in connection with its resemblance to genuine (more expensive)…
Category: Gem or Scam? Library
Nickel
Nickel crystals are occasionally offered in dendrite or tree-like form, but this is all man-made. Nickel crystals may form on the wires used in the…
Nirvana (Ice) quartz
Commercial name for natural quartz with intermittent growth (irregular shapes and partial crystal faces) from the Himalayas. Also called (Himalayan) Ice quartz or interference quartz.…
Northern Light Stone
Commercial name for a metamorphic rock from Norway, a fuchsite schist or gneiss. The rock contains at least the green mica fuchsite and quartz; some…
Novaculite
Designation for a variety of chert. It is a fine-grained hard rock composed mainly of extremely fine-grained to cryptocrystalline quartz. It can be white, gray…
Oceanite
Another marketing name for blue-colored (aqua) banded calcite from Argentina. Also called Aquatine (Calcite)™, Blue Onyx or Lemurian Aquatine Calcite™.
Nuummite
An unofficial name for a dark metamorphic rock with elongated, golden iridescent crystals composed of alternating lamellae of anthophyllite and gedrite (ortho-amphiboles). Its appearance is…
Onyx / onyx marble
In correct usage, the name onyx refers to a black and white banded agate, a variety of chalcedony. In addition to black and white onyx,…
Obsidianite / emerald obsidianite
Deceptive name for man-made glass, whether mixed with volcanic ash or not, sold as natural volcanic glass. Man-made “volcanic” glass is mainly offered under the…
Ocean Jasper™
Commercially registered trade name used for a multicolored silicified rhyolite or tuff from Madagascar. In this originally volcanic rock, quartz or chalcedony and feldspar have…
