TOP 15 Biggest Crystals

crystals and gemstones bigger than cars bigger than houses nature has gone berserk here are the top 15 biggest crystals ever discovered number 15 the eternal flame as far as crystals go few are as dazzling as the eternal flame widely considered to be one of the largest black crystals ever found it hails from the volcanic soils of new south wales australia and weighs in in an incredible 568 carats it was located in 2017 after remaining in a safe for 40 years and it stands apart due to the brilliant rays of color it emits at the moment it's under the ownership of the black opal direct and it's unclear whether or not it's for sale regardless we think you'd agree it's one of the most beautiful opals in the world number 14 the cave of the crystals if you want to see a collection of thousands of natural crystals all in one place then mexico's cave of the crystals was the place to be located 300 meters underground at the naika mine in the northern state of chihuahua its main chamber contains giant selenite crystals they are considered to be some of the largest on the planet with the biggest on record coming in at a length of 12 meters the cave was discovered back in april of 2000 by brothers juan and pedro sanchez while drilling in the mine and while it was explored to an extent it's extremely hot air temperature of 58 degrees meant that the researchers could only last in the cave for intervals of about 10 minutes however at this time the mines are completely closed and as a result the cave is naturally flooded to the extent that it's now inaccessible number 13 the massive quartz while quartz may not be nearly as expensive as ruby diamond or sapphire a large chunk of it can still bring in a pretty price tag with that in mind we'd bet the miners at the ron coleman mine in jesseville arkansas were overjoyed when they discovered a massive quartz in 2016. measuring in at a length of 2.4 meters and excavated over a four-day excavation project it's believed to weigh about kilograms and be worth an astoundingly high price of three and a half million dollars we just hope that they're able to find someone willing to buy some of this massive rock number 12 tanzanite titans unfortunately the majority of miners in developing countries are dirt poor and while most are never able to escape their poverty in june of 2020 a tanzanian miner named sanui lazier was able to turn his fortunes around with the help of some tanzanite found only in northern tanzania tanzanite is one of the rarest gemstones on earth and can bring in a lot of money to those who find it thus lazier was extremely lucky to discover two stones that were 30 centimeters in length and soon after they were discovered tanzania's ministry of minerals bought them from the miner for a whopping 3.35 million dollars best of all azir has promised to use the money to better his community and has pledged to build both a school on a shopping mall with the funds we hope that he's able to go through with these promises number 11 the american golden topaz if you happen to be born in november and you can take pride in knowing that the topaz is your official birthstone but of all the topaz is out there none quite matched the american golden topaz mined in minas gerais brazil in the 1980s it originated from an 11.8 kilogram rock owned by doctors marie l and edgar f borgata however after being cut by a fastener leon aji over a period of two years in the late 1980s the end result was a 22 982 carat gem that is absolutely incredible sporting a total of 172 facets and a warm honey gold color it comes in at 17 and a half by 15 by 9.4 centimeters and it stands apart due to it having a near uniform color and having almost no imperfections interestingly enough instead of keeping the diamond for themselves the two doctors decided to donate it to the smithsonian institute where it's currently on display in the janet annenberg hooker hall of geology gems and minerals number 10 the patricia emerald while most large crystals are turned into expensive jewelry the patricia emerald stands apart for still being in its uncut state coming in at a length of 6.35 centimeters and a width of 2.5 centimeters and a weight of 632 carats it was named after the daughter of the mine owner and was sourced from colombia's chivor mine located high up in the andes mountains the chivor mine was one of the most infamous colonial enterprises at the time of the spanish conquistadors yet had laid abandoned for years after they left in 1675 upon being closed by a royal decree yet in 1897 it was rediscovered by mining engineer don francisco restrepo and in 1901 restrepo and his associate fritz klein bought the land from the government mining operations there commenced in 1911 and sometime between then and 1915 the patricia emerald was discovered upon finding it fritz named it after his daughter and after holding on to it for a few years he donated the rough crystal to the american museum of natural history in new york in 1921. it is in its archives that the gem still sits and it's easily one of the most valuable stones in its collection number nine the star of atom of all the gemstones out there few are quite as sought after as the blue star sapphire while it may appear opaque at first what makes it crystal-like is its beautiful six-pointed star which can only be seen if light strikes the stone just right and while many of the crystals on this list were found long ago the largest blue star sapphire in the world was found quite recently excavated in 2016 from a sri lankan mine near the city of ratnapura it was bought in a local market by an anonymous buyer after determining that it may be the largest blue sapphire in the world he refused to disclose how much he bought it for but didn't hesitate to explain that he was looking to sell it for a massive sum of 300 million dollars in terms of size it's egg-shaped and large enough to fit in the palm of one's hand and it comes in at an impressive 1404 carats now in all likelihood it will be hard to find a buyer as despite being a record-breaking gemstone it's still too expensive for most so we hope it ends up in a museum so that we can all visit and admire it we are constantly adding more people to the top fives production team to bring you all the best content be sure to subscribe with notifications on and hit the like button number eight the empress of uruguay while amethyst may not be considered to be the most valuable crystal out there the empress of uruguay is a specimen that's nothing short of incredible coming in at a staggering height of 3.2 meters and a weight of two and a half tons it's a geode that contains thousands of amethyst crystals that were thought to have formed 130 million years ago it was discovered back in 2007 in the artigas region of northern uruguay which is an area that's famous for yielding some of the world's highest quality amethysts upon hearing about the find australian museum owners renee and nelik wassevan wasted no time in snatching it up for a cool 75 thousand dollars and then rested on their laurels as miners began to dig it out of the bedrock it reportedly took about three months to excavate it and upon completion of the dig it was shipped by mr and mrs wassevant to northeastern australia for a transport cost of 25 000 once arriving there it was put on display at their crystal caves museum and can even be touched by the thousands of visitors that go through its doors each year therefore if you ever happen to find yourself in atherton australia we highly suggest checking it out for yourself number seven the incomparable diamond while you probably found some cool rocks or leaves outside when you were a kid in 1984 a young girl made the discovery of a lifetime while playing in a pile of mine waste outside of her home in the republic of the congo that's because she managed to pick out a diamond that is simply known as the incomparable now the girl gave the diamond to her uncle who sold it to some local african diamond dealers who in turn sold it to a group of lebanese buyers operating out of kisha from there it eventually got into the hands of the de beers corporation who soon realized that its weight of 890 carats made it the largest brown diamond ever found the decision was then made for it to be cut into one large piece and several smaller pieces with the largest of the bunch being a 407 carat jewel that's considered to be internally flawless to this day it's still considered to be one of the world's most valuable gems number six the excelsior diamond as far as diamonds go few have an origin story quite as crazy as the excelsior diamond found at the jaegers fontaine mine in south africa's orange free state on june 30th of 1893 it was first discovered in a pile of gravel by a worker who was shoveling it into a truck rather than handing it to his morally questionable overseer he gave it directly to the mine manager who awarded him with 500 pounds in cash and a horse equipped with a saddle and a bridle as a reward soon afterwards it was shipped to london and in 1903 ij asher of amsterdam was commissioned with the task of breaking it into jewelry grade pieces due to containing a number of small dark inclusions the diamond was not made into one large stone but instead into several small ones with a total of 11 large pieces and 11 small pieces being made of the original 995.2 carats a total of 373.7 carats of gem quality material was created with the largest single stone being the 69.68 carat pear-shaped excelsior one the fact that it was cut into such small pieces made it lose its allure to institutions such as the smithsonian and instead it was sold privately to jewelry makers around the planet as a result the original excelsior diamond is now present in several pieces of high priced jewelry number five the cooling on diamond while there are many large diamonds out there none have been quite as high profile as the coolant considered to be the largest gem quality diamond ever found it was located five and a half meters below the surface at premiere number two mine in culinary south africa on january 26 of 1905 named after mine chairman sir thomas kulinon it measured in at 10.1 centimeters long and 6.3 centimeters wide 5.9 centimeters deep and 3 106 carats in weight it was believed to have once been part of a much larger diamond far below ground by all accounts it was near perfect after all be it its beautiful blue white hue or nearly flawless interior it certainly was a thing of beauty the diamond size and beauty attracted large crowds and was put on display at johannesburg's standard bank where a daily average of eight to nine thousand visitors would catch a glimpse of it however by april of 1905 it was shipped off to london where it was deposited with premier mining companies sales agent s neumann and company for the next two years it received considerable interest yet due to its massive price tag it remained unsold but that all changed in august of 1907 when the prime minister of south africa's transvaal colony convinced his parliament to authorize a purchase of the diamond for the modern equivalent of over 22 and a half million dollars they then gifted the diamond to king edward vii who had it cut by joseph asher and company of amsterdam they cut it into nine large diamonds and 96 minor stones and once all was said and done the two largest became crown jewels one became a gift to the member of the royal family five were purchased by the south african government and all of the smaller ones were sold and distributed worldwide as if today most of these have been made into beautiful brooches and necklaces number four the emerald um most of the crystals on this list have traveled all over the world but few have made a journey quite as interesting as the emerald unguntarium the exact source of the emerald is still unclear however what we do know is that it came from one of two mines the first possibility is the shivor mines which are located high up in the andes about 70 kilometers northeast of bogota colombia founded in 1537 shavor was operated until 1675 when it was closed by royal decree due to inhumane working conditions on the other hand the emerald may also originate from the muzo mines located about 200 kilometers northwest of the shivor mines in the country of colombia it began operation in 1594 and continued until the mid-1600s when it was destroyed by a fire in any case the muzo mines are considered by many experts to be the more probable source and it was likely from here that it was sent to the spanish crown in the early 1600s upon arrival in spain it was soon bought by austria's habsburg empire who then commissioned gem cutter dioncio miseroni to transform the emerald into a small vessel known as an umentarium work on it began in 1641 and in 1642 the 2680 carat piece was presented to the emperor who was reportedly overjoyed with the results once completed it became one of the most valuable pieces in europe although but it's never sold due to its prohibitively high price tag as such it remained among the habsburg lorraine household treasures for centuries and today is displayed by austria's imperial treasury at vienna's hofburg palace number three the milan jolly ruby while the world's largest blue star sapphire may hail from sri lanka the world's largest double star ruby comes from the nearby country of india hailing from the bangalore region its origins are quite mysterious however what we do know is that it was originally owned by the kings of the vijay anagar empire as a part of a larger collection and rather than be used as jewelry the rubies were instead an object of worship in honor of the god shiva and as such they began to accumulate a lot of dirt and grime over time yet rather than clean them these kings would not touch them for fear of desecrating the sacred stones and as such they were passed down from generation to generation in this concealed state however this all changed in the 1970s when retired lawyer g vidyaraj inherited the stones due to him not being too religious himself he got curious and after cleaning them with soap and a brush he immediately realized their value this led to him getting them appraised and cut by a professional gem cutter and it turned out that the largest which is now known as the nylon jolly ruby was an incredible 1370 carats after being cut after word came out about the rubies he received a lot of publicity and began to look for a buyer that was willing to shell out about a hundred million dollars upon finding one he said he would put the money into a trust fund where it would be then distributed to the less fortunate and while no new info is surfaced about the nilanjali ruby since about 2008 it's believed to have been either sold to an anonymous buyer or be in the custody of mr vidyaraj's only son regardless we just hope that if it was sold the money was used in the way that mr vidyaraj promised it would be number two the dom pedro aquamarine a close cousin to the emerald an aquamarine is a dazzling gemstone that has the same light blue color as seawater and while there are several aquamarine stones out there none are as large as the dom pedro first excavated at some point in 1980s in the state of minas geras in brazil it originally measured in at about 90 centimeters long and weighed nearly 45 kilograms however for one reason or another it was dropped by the prospectors and then it split into three pieces the first two were sold by the mine owners anonymously to be cut into jewelry but the largest of the three escaped this fate name the dom pedro in honor of the first emperor of brazil after changing hands multiple times it landed into the hands of german gem artist bernard munsteiner rather than be cut into jewelry he instead chose to use the raw material to make a sculpture after four months of hand sketching designs he finally settled on one which he named the ondas maritimas or waves of the sea and after six months of work he finally completed it against most expectations he opted to use the gem's inner hollow tubes to accentuate the work in spite of the fact that they're considered to be imperfections this led to a statue that was not only beautiful but that comes in at a massive 10 363 carats and measures in at 36 centimeters in length and 10 centimeters in width in 1999 it was then bought by american gem collectors jane mitchell and jeffrey bland they kept it closed off to the public for the next 10 years or so but after some time they decided it should be on display for all to enjoy as such it was donated to the smithsonian and can be viewed at the janet annenberg hooker hall of geology number one the star of sierra leone of all the diamond mining areas in the world none are quite as controversial as sierra leone after all years of fighting and corruption have been the direct result of the diamonds found in the area and as a result they've been dubbed blood diamonds by the western media yet while many people will refuse to buy diamonds from these conflict zones there are few that would shy away from the chance to own the star of sierra leone found on february 14th of 1972 at the dominico alluvial mines in the koidu area of sierra leone it was the largest diamond to ever be found in the country weighing in in an impressive 968.9 carats it was sold on october 3rd of 1972 to american jeweler harry winston for a sum of about two and a half million dollars and soon afterwards he got to work cutting it initially it was cut into an emerald-shaped stone weighing 143.2 carats but after finding an internal flaw it was eventually recut the end result was a total of 17 separate diamonds with 13 considered to be flawless the largest of these was a 53.9 carat pear-shaped diamond and by all accounts it's considered to be an incredibly expensive gem yet what really makes it stand apart is that it's classed as a type 2a diamond meaning that it's chemically pure and structurally perfect considering that less than one percent of all diamonds fall under this category the star of sierra leone was truly an oddity as it's rare to find such large stones with so few imperfections thus it's not hard to see why this stone generated a lot of hype when it was first excavated watch our nature playlist for more top 15 videos about beautiful nature sit back relax and binge watch all of our best nature videos

Channel: Top Fives

Views: 3,786,133

Keywords: Biggest Crystals

Id: e-UwG7NuGG0

Length: 18min 55sec (1135 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 29 2021