Mineral Minute Episode 4 - Jade (Jadeite/Nephrite)

Today’s mineral: Jade
Jade is actually the name given to 2 minerals: Jadeite and Nephrite. Jadeite is a prized sodium-aluminum silicate, and nephrite is a calcium-magnesium silicate. Jade can be green, lavender, red, yellow, white, or even black.
It has a hardness of 6-7. Due to a lack of visible crystals, cleavage is rarely observed, and it has a waxy, greasy, or pearly luster.
Polished Jade is known for its beauty and in some ancient civilizations it was worth more than gold. The Chinese sculpted jade into figurines, and symbols, like the famous jade dragon, and also into musical instruments. In China, the green variety of jade was called Imperial Jade, and had to be given to the Emperor when found. The Egyptians wore jade to ward off evil, both in life and in death.
Jade can be found in Burma, Russia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and Guatemala.
Here in the United States, jade can actually be collected along the coast of central California at Jade Cove, near King City.
And that’s all the time we have for this episode of Mineral Minute.
Visit our blog:
rockhounding-trips.blogspot.com/
For great Rockhounding gifts and clothing, visit our Rockhounding USA Store:
www.cafepress.com/rockhoundingusa

[@paigelee6321]

Thank you 😊 love this

[@rockhoundingusa8207]

Thanks for the encouragement! More to come!

[@lpgascon]

This is a wonderful series. Love your channel, helps me cope with the Canadian winter until i can go out Rockhounding again. Top notch editing, best i've seen in a while. Keep 'em comin'!

[@rockhoundingusa8207]

Thanks for the encouragement! Our goal is to release one new episode of Mineral Minute per week, and a new field trip video report each month (along with a few other videos in between, including our Amazing Tales of Geology). We just filmed two new field trips (one fossil hunt and one crystal hunt) and hope to have those out soon.

[@copper_fiber_studio]

I love watching this series!

[@rockhoundingusa8207]

Angela--we are thrilled that these tiny, 60-second tidbits are finding a fan club. Our goal is to release several each month. Who knows...maybe your favorite mineral will be next!

[@aerocabin]

Fiji is the new New Zealand =)