Sapphire is a gemstone of considerable reach and much studied, and yet still delivering scientific surprises. This is most recently exemplified by a new paper in this issue of American Mineralogist by Palke and Breeding (2017) that re-interprets the origin of needle-like rutile inclusions that form “silk” in sapphires.
Sapphire as a gem variety of corundum with wide use in the gem trade as one of the more historically valuable colored gem stones (CGS). It is mined from a great variety of continental gem deposits across the world. A masterly compendium on this gemstone and its ramifications is available (...
You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.
