Stuff that Looks Like Opal - Geological, Biological & Man-Made Opal Impostors →
There's opal, there's synthetic opal, and then there's this stuff. Minerals, biological materials and man-made substances that have similar visual properties to opal!
Some stuff that didn’t make the cut:
Examples of materials that exhibit similar visual effects as opal. Not all of these materials made it into the video, what do you recognise?
More examples.
“Opal glass”, or iridescent glass has a weathering crust that displays optical effects.
Weathering crust on a beer bottle that was buried in Collarenebri for about 60 years.
Detail of the majestic piece of ancient European glass, displaying all manner of colours and textures.
The reverse of the same piece, showing blues and cyans surrounding the golden patches.
An image I regret omitting from the video: sunstone displays mostly an orange colour from its copper inclusions, but some of the flashes of colour are green, as seen on the right, here.
Gorgeous green beetle carapaces from the study collection of the Australian Opal Centre. Similar structural colouring can be found on Christmas beetles and houseflies.
Another omission from the video, a glorious example of an ammonite with beautifully preserved ammolite, shimmering in greens and pinks.
A visual comparison of actual crystal opal (left) and Opalite (right).
Labradorite on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labrado...
Fire agate on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_agate
Ammolite on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammolite
Weathered glass information from the Corning Museum of Glass: https://www.cmog.org/article/weathere