Chapter 578 Pretty interesting (1/2)

Chapter 578: Pretty interesting

Translator: Nyoi-Bo StudioEditor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Li Du helped Alicia get up and asked in a puzzled tone, ”Gemstone pit? What's that?”

Brendan was just about to open his mouth, before Alicia gave him a punch and angrily said, ”Are you trying to get us killed? Why did you let go of the handle?”

Although he had taken a beating, Brendan was not angry at all. He and his cousin Stephen were very much alike in this aspect. They had the characteristic of a yes-man.

Facing his angry wife, he forced a smile and said, ”I got too excited. We should hurry to the gemstone pit or else there will be nothing left if we are late.”

”Gemstone pit?” Sophie asked. ”What's that? Are there a lot of gemstones?”

Li Du shook his head. ”Yes and no. An ”opal gemstone pit” refers to an area with a lot of boulder opals.”

All natural mineral gemstones were derived from silicon dioxide. The reason for the formation of opals could be found approximately one billion years ago, in some regions where there were extremely high temperatures, due to a volcanic eruption or the impact of a meteorite. The high temperatures then melted the rocks into pure silicon dioxide.

The silicon dioxide, which was melted into liquid form, then flowed like magma into the crevices in the ground and empty mineral areas, where they were deposited.

Generally speaking, such depositions were only effective at around 400 feet deep from the earth's surface. Approximately every five million years, deposited sediments would add a centimeter of thickness, causing the silicon dioxide to slowly coagulate together.

Within the one to two million year period after that phase, the deposited sediments had slowly solidified as the weather changed. Opals and the deposited sediments had not bonded together. After yet another long period of time, only a part of the silicon dioxide was solidified.

While the silicon dioxide solidified, some of it might not be able to separate from the surrounding rocks and possibly fuse with the rocks or dust.

Under such conditions, boulder opals were formed. Boulder opals referred to opals that were fused together with rocks to form a single entity. When dug up, they referred to the rocks that encased an opal and also rocks with opals embedded in them.

Of course, there were also many other reasons for opals to have such beautiful shapes and patterns. The reasons involved a very complex physical process, which Li Du had only managed to comprehend after much difficulty.

He gained the knowledge of both gemstone pits and boulder opals while he learned the information regarding their formation.

The conditions for the formation of boulder opal were different to those of pure opal. Nearly all of the liquid silicon dioxide came into contact with surrounding rocks during the flowing and solidifying process.

However, only a part of it formed boulder opals, while most of it still formed pure opals. A complex physical process was also involved in this.

It was during the physical process that the difference between boulder opal and pure opal emerged. Pure opals were usually found alone, whereas boulder opals were found in large quantities.

Compared to pure opal, the prices of boulder opal were slightly lower as it was usually fused together with some ugly-looking rocks.

If a gemstone was ugly, it was not worth a single cent.

However, with the advancements in modern science and technology, the value of boulder opal had increased.

Some machines were capable of grinding away the external layer of rock from a boulder opal, hence revealing the opal inside. There were also machines that could sculpt the layer of rock into valuable patterns.

With the two methods, the value of a boulder opal could increase by ten fold. This was especially so for the latter method, as opals themselves were very valuable. Hence, when people bought them, they would not be willing to grind them and would keep them in their original states.

But, it was different when there was a layer of rock as the rock was not valuable and so could be sculpted at will.

Li Du had heard in the news that this kind of boulder opal was rather popular in the market.