Imagine if making money was as easy as collecting rain. Well, it’s that easy right now in Hawaii… sort of. Hawaiians are finding small gemstones that have rained down from the sky since Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been erupting for more than a month.
The gems are coming from a common mineral found in Hawaii’s lava.
The gems they are finding are olivine crystals. When produced at jewelry quality it’s called peridot. According to Forbes, molten lava gets blasted apart when the volcano erupts. This allows the olivine to be separated from the rest of the melt and fall as tiny gemstones.
Now the accounts of the olivine have only been proposed on social media.
People are posting photos of the olivine they supposedly found on Twitter.
“Friends of mine live in Hawaii, right next to the area impacted by the most recent lava flows. In the midst of the destruction nearby & stress of the unknown, they woke up to this – tiny pieces of olivine all over the ground. It is literally raining gems. Nature is truly amazing,” reported Erin Jordan on Twitter.
However, IFLScience reports that scientists on the ground have yet to confirm this.
“We have had no confirmation of this on the ground. Olivine in images from @ErinJordan_WX show rounded grains in what looks like gravel. This is not what the primary deposits look like from #Fissure8. @usatodayweather misrepresents quotes from USGS scientists,” a tweet from the United States Geological Survey Volcanoes said.
Olivine is an iron-magensium mineral that has its own geochemcial specturm and is one of the first things to take solid form in magma when it’s cooled underground. Since the magma that is flowing from the volcano is near-mantle derived, we’re more likely to see lots of olivine now than a month ago.
Olivine is already pretty prevelent in Hawaii.
There’s actually an entire beach made out of olivine. Papakōlea Beach was formed when olivine crystal eroded out of the volcanic landscape and remained onshore since the grains are so heavy. The beach is actually green.
So the process of finding olivine that has broken free from lava rocks is actually possible.
However, it’s unclear if the olivine found in the social media photos were from this specific volcanic eruption.
“I did wonder about this. But have got eruption-clean crystals of olivine from 2011(need to check) eruption of Piton Caille in Reunion, so they can occur,” said Petrologist Dr. John Faithfull of the University of Glasgow.
Either some are warning others on social media about cashing in on their gemstone finds.
They say that taking gemstones from the land could offend Pele the volcano goddess. That or it could be illegal.
So, even if you’re not pocketing any olivine it’s still a beautiful sight to see.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
