Emerald Formation for Dummies

raw, uncut emeralds in crystal form

The Antisocial Network's founder recently read Shawn Otto's The War On Science, somewhat of a polemic on the treatment of science and scientists in the modern sociopolitical climate. One of the problems, according to Otto, is that journalists are taught that there is no such thing as objectivity, even though objectivity is the foundation of science. In other words, J-school graduates know jack about science. That's certainly true of "professional journalist" (turned organic farmer) Chris Sherwood, who demonstrated his scientific illiteracy for OurPastimes.com¹ when he attempted to explain "How Are Emeralds Made?"²

We'd suspect the question actually meant, "How do they create synthetic emeralds?" but Sherwood went whole-hog on the natural genesis of emeralds; though he did duck into the lab briefly in his last section. That's not why we're here, though: we're here because of the scientific illiteracy of his content, including such claims as

Most natural emeralds are made in geothermic phenomenons called hydrothermal veins. We think he meant "geothermal phenomena" -- both scientifically illiterate and illiterate! With these super heated fluids also come mineral deposits that travel with the fluid until it has cooled enough to turn into a crystallized form. Apparently, Sherwood has no awareness of ions in solution -- guess he skipped chemistry in J-school.  These deposits react with the minerals around them to form natural emeralds, as well as many other types of gems depending on the minerals involved. Well, no -- many types of minerals, though not many are gems. Emeralds are usually formed when the element beryllium combines with chromium. He apparently didn't get it that emeralds are the gem form of beryl, which is a berylliam-aluminum silicate; so silicon and oxygen are also present. Dumbass. Porphyroblastic growth is another way that emeralds may form. In this case, the emerald forms inside of a host rock. As the rock takes shape from the cooling magma, the emerald inside removes all the minerals it needs from the surrounding rock and forms the emerald inside. Ummm, no: porphyroblasts are found in metamorphic rocks, not igneous; and emerald porphyroblasts are so unusual that they don't deserve mention except in passing. The real rock type of interest is pegmatite, which Sherwood doesn't mention at all. Idiot. Emeralds can also be grown in a lab. Labs do this by creating the same conditions in the lab that beryllium and chromium would undergo in a hydrothermal vein. A flux solution may also be included in the mix to help the two elements combine. Sorry, Chris, you're conflated two different methods. Moron.

Sherwood, like so many of eHow's J-school graduates, is convinced that his education gave him the skills to write knowledgeably about any subject. Well, Chris, we're here to tell you that you're wrong -- and to give you this token of our disdain, the Dumbass of the Day award.

¹ You guessed it: OurPastimes.com is the Leaf Group's niche site where they're slowly migrating all of the eHow.com "toys, hobbies and games" content – including some of science, which is how a mineralogy question ended up in that particular niche.
² The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but you might still be able to access it using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was ourpastimes.com/emeralds-made-5131937.html

copyright © 2016-2021 scmrak

SI - MINERAL