American Museum of Natural History in New York announces spectacular new hall for gems and minerals

After four years of refurbishment, the 11,000-square-foot Alison and Roberto Mignone gem and mineral hall at the American Museum of Natural History in New York will reopen on June 12. The city is reopening.

In this hall, which tells a fascinating story of how a wide variety of minerals were formed on Earth and that humanity has used them for personal decoration, tools and techniques for thousands of years. Exhibits more than 5,000 specimens from more than 98 countries.

The highlights are:

* A gallery of dazzling gemstones, including the legendary 563 carat Star of India Sapphire, gem crystals such as the 632 carat Patricia Emerald, and an organgie necklace with 110 carat diamonds designed by Michelle On for Carne.

* A wonderful new specimen never seen before, including a pair of the world’s largest amethyst geodes on display. A slice of 35 million year old metasequoia (petrified metasequoia from the Cascade Range). A 9-pound Almandine subway garnet discovered under 35th Avenue in Manhattan in 1885. And a three-foot-high Targo. Cranberry Red Elbite Tourmaline is one of the finest mineral crystal clusters ever discovered.

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* An interactive exhibition showing the science of mineralogy.Contains a dynamic periodic table of chemical elements that shows how they “make minerals”

* Butterfly of piece, 240 colored diamonds arranged in the same cut and color symmetrical pattern.

* Nearly 600 pounds of topaz specimen from Minas Gerais, Brazil, one of the largest topaz single crystals in any museum in the world.

* Weighing about 0.5 tons, hundreds of sword-like crystals, exhibited from southeastern China, one of the largest open stibnite specimens

New exhibition, Beautiful creatureInspired by animals, the jewelery houses and craftsmen such as Bvlgari, Cartier, JAR and Tiffany showcase exquisite jewelery created over the last 150 years. Jewelery is placed in the animal categories observed in the air, underwater and on land.

Organized by George E. Harlow, curator of the museum’s Department of Physical Sciences, the redesigned hall exhibits geological conditions and mineral formation processes (igneous rocks, pegmatites, metamorphic rocks, hydrothermal and weathering). It is arranged to indicate. As part of this composition, Hall introduces the evolution of minerals, a concept developed over the last 15 years.

Recognizing that no minerals existed at all for hundreds of millions of years from the Big Bang, this concept explains why the Earth today has more than 5,500 mineral species. This process began with supernovae injecting more and heavier elements into the universe, which can combine into minerals. The formation of planets makes it possible to distinguish between these minerals, most of which are directed towards the surface in the form of molten rock. Minerals have diversified in color, texture, and chemical composition as new mineral-forming environments have emerged on Earth, including the accumulation of liquid water and the introduction of free oxygen into the atmosphere by the first phototrophs. Organisms contain, produce, and use minerals, and life has created new minerals.

“When I started working in the museum, there were probably 2,500 minerals described, and now there are more than 5,500 minerals,” Harlow said. “The fortified hall is the latest, significantly advanced. We look forward to seeing visitors delight in the wonderful gems and mineral specimens of the world, as well as in our own backyard, like the New York City Minerals Exhibit. “