The Virgin Rainbow Gem – The incredible nature always produces an array of gems that look simply out of this world. Opals, especially, have a mesmeric amount of visual diversity. However, some seemingly contain small fireworks hidden within them, while others look like a prismatic universe bursting out of wood.
There are constantly new discoveries of these gems that are each more stunning than the last, like the Virgin Rainbow. This stunning opal made its public debut just last year in Adelaide, Australia. The yellow, red, blue, and black sparkle through this brilliant gem, and as the light moves around it, the colors continuously change and mutate.
In 2003, minder John Dunstan has discovered the Virgin Rainbow in the opal fields of Coober Pedy, located in South Australia. Coober Pedy is a mining town that produces about 90 percent of the world’s opals. This part of the world is so harsh that the town was built almost completely underground to give miners and their families respite from the extreme temperatures and regular dust storms of the area.
The “Virgin Rainbow” has certainly caused the stimulation between geologists and intrigued onlookers similar cannot seem to take their eyes or minds off of this 72-carat beauty. The largest precious & most valuable opal in the world is recognized as the “Olympic Australis Opal,” named after the Olympic Games that were taking place in Australia the year the gem was found (1956). The Olympic Australis has been estimated to be worth more than $250 million.
The virgin’s Rainbow’s magical qualities make it a highly-prized fossil. Basically, it is technically an opalized fossil, the result of land that was once a vast inland sea filled with prehistoric aquatic reptiles. Therefore, once they died, they sank to the bottom of the sea and were buried by sediment over a long period of time. The sea dried up and the land transformed into a desert, where acidity levels and weathering sandstone released silica into the ground. This magnificent gel then hardened into the pockets and impressions of the opals, bringing them to this fossilized form.
Hence, many opalized fossils lack a powerful surface sheen, but this is not the case with the Virgin Rainbow. It radiates an internal fire, beaming bizarre multicolored hues that only grow more penetrating as the lights dim. Thus, you’ll never see another piece like that one, it’s so distinct. That opal actually glows in the dark the darker the light, the more color comes out of it, it’s unbelievable. The current value of Virgin Rainbow is more than $1 million.
Virgin Rainbow gem is a precious stone exhibited for the first time ever at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide last September 2015, a dazzlingly colored opal about the size of a human thumb, weighs 72 carats, and is considered one of the finest opals ever unearthed.
