Talk:Opal

message: I took the liberty of copying the Welo Opal section into the Opal article.  It needs a lot of work, including citations.  I believe that the statistics on the percentage of precious opal coming from various countries needs updating, as Ethiopian opal seems to be very common and Australian opal production seems to be declining.  Please help edit this newly added section. Dpulitzer (talk) 19:49, 18 September 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merging Ethiopian Wollo (Welo; Wello) Opal into Opal Article 

message: This article read 'Opal is a mineraloid gel'... I'm pretty sure that was a typo. Sergeirichard (talk) 17:06, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: A gel?

message: Opal is the [Queen of Gems]. No gemstone can match its spectacular 'play of color' or uniqueness. Australia produces 95% of the world's opal. Australian opal is sedimentry, whereas other opal from countries such as Indonesia, America, Peru, Mexico, Hungary and Poland is mostly volcanic.
Quality opal commands a lower price per carrot than diamond and is magnificent.
* If you are familiar with the Rappaport Diamond Price Report, you will find that your statement is false regarding price per 'carrot', I think you mean carat, don't you? We can agree that high-quality gem grade opal is magnificent, but diamonds are graded on an established scale of quality while the valuation of opal is much more haphazard.T.E. Goodwin 07:48, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Value of opals

message: There should be something on how opal forms
*I concur. The geogenesis of opal is very interesting but complex to describe. As a Graduate Gemologist, I deal with opals on a daily basis and have been studying them for over 27 years. I will try to add some information on the fly here when I can find some time to go through my past lecture notesT.E. Goodwin 07:55, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Formation 

message: The article claims that 'opalescence' is often used erroneously to refer to what is more accurately termed 'play of color', but Merriam-Webster defines the adj. opalescent as 'reflecting an irridescent light', and irridescence is defined as 
'a lustrous rainbowlike play of color caused by differential refraction of light waves.' Maybe there is a conflict between technical and common definitions, but if MW supports the use of 'opalescence' to refer to 'play of color' in common speech, I believe it. Can someone address this? It sounded like whoever wrote that in the article knew what they were talking about, so I'm hesitant to change it without consultation. cmac 03:27, 30 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Rather than "play of color," wouldn't the correct term be pleochroism? user:mapetite526
* "Play of color" is the commonly recognized gemological term. Because opal is singly-refractive isotropic, rather than doubly-refractive anisotropic, it cannot display pleochroism.T.E. Goodwin 07:32, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Additional article problem 

message: I've heard that opal is bad luck to own unless it's your birthstone.  Can anyone confirm that this is a more widely-known belief?  --Clay Collier 05:28, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've heard this too, I don't believe it though. I own an opal ring but am August born. But yes, someone mentioned this to my Mother once I think. --GracieLizzie 12:27, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Superstition 

message: The result of Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Boulder opal was that Boulder opal should be merged into this article and redirected. If someone more familiar with the topic could merge the relevant details and then redirect Boulder opal to Opal, that would be great. Thanks! ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 23:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Hasty decision! An article only weeks old gets slated for deletion... Boulder opal is very distinct from solid opal and should eventually have it's own article. SauliH 07:43, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

text: Boulder opal is indeed a different "animal" and certainly deserves it's own article, SauliHT.E. Goodwin 23:20, 30 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Merged a little, most redundant or not really useable. Made redir. Seems boulder opal is simply opal as either fracture fillings or concretions in a dark ironstone - can't really see that it needs a separate article, don't need to promote it for the Aussies. Gem variety articles are mostly spam attractors. Vsmith 12:02, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge 

message: I see that this page is "supported" if that is the right term by the Gemology & Jewelry project. 
Therefore, I am not sure whether that would limit adding short sections on the following:
(i) what is known about the "structure" of opal/opaline silica; e.g. opal-C opal-CT, opal-AG etc.. which have slightly different structures on a more local scale. This might not interest gemologists so much as mineralogists/crystallographers, but it would seem to be quite useful to have a resume on here.
(ii) opal is classed as a natural photonic crystal. The page on this topic links to this page and has a picture which was probably originally uploaded for this page. Do a search on Google and see how many links come up under opal & photonic crystal. There is rightly a completely separate page on this topic, but I think it would be good to put a link to photonic crystals somewhere on this page, at the very least under "See Also", since a lot of other people looking up opal might be coming from this field. Opal is almost iconic in this field.
(iii) Organic occurrences of opal/opaline silica: in leaves, some animals etc.
I think these topics should be covered somewhere, but I don't want the anger of the world's gemologists on my head. I'd like to hear some comments on whether people would like short sections at the end of this article or to think about a separate page. Personally, my preference would be to add such sections to this article, since that would fit what I think should be done in an encyclopedia. Judge Nutmeg 15:22, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  What are the limits of coverage of this article? 

message: I couldn't quite figure out how to undo some vandalism so I just saved an earlier version of the article. It looks good now. Sorry that I didn't post edit summaries. Makeemlighter (talk) 04:02, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  30 April 2008 Edits 

message: I have proof that Opals are the October Birthstone but it doesn't say that on that anywhere, can someone help?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.171.70.92 (talk) 22:34, 17 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Birthstone 

message: This page and most of the gemstones are relevant to geologists too.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 138.88.34.53 (talk) 23:00, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Relevant to geologists

message: I dont think it is clear weather this would be classified as Igneous, Metamorphic, or Sedimentary.
Superscout22 (talk) 02:08, 15 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Igneous, Metamorphic, or Sedimentary? 

message: Bones, teeth, fishes and a snake head, all made of opal? Pics or didn't happen. --TiagoTiago (talk) 10:07, 9 December 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Need pics of the opalized fossils 

message: Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that :File:Opal from Yowah, Queensland, Australia 2.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on January 10, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-01-10. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng  {chat} 19:12, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[:File:Opal from Yowah, Queensland, Australia 2.jpg]] to appear as POTD soon 

message: As all knows that opal is a gemstone for Venus(shukra).Their are various categories which shows its effect for the person who wears it.
opal reduces negative thoughts,helps to healing from cronic disease and help to improve the affect of impotency in mens due to aging reason or due to bad practices in male at smaller age.
opal initiates charm in doing things and also cure mental problems.
fire opal : luck stone,effective in heart diseases,blood pressure.
white opal(milky):improves the bone marrow and help to recovering from back acche.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.163.65.102 (talk) 15:04, 6 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  opal and its effects 

message: "Opal is the national gemstone of Australia, which produces 97% of the world's supply,[4] and also of the state of South Australia, which produces around 80% of the world's supply.[5]"
That can not be true. Those numbers add up to a staggering 177%.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.185.28.194 (talk) 17:50, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Since South Australia remains a part of Australia - then it indeed can be true. Altho' the sentences could be worded better. Vsmith (talk) 20:58, 12 August 2012 (UTC)

text: Reworded, Vsmith (talk) 21:02, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Percentages

message: It would be really nice if the article spoke in detail about how opals form ... especially since they seem to be able to form as a replacement in a sort of fossilization process.  This should either be in the introduction or an early section.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.155.76.35 (talk) 02:00, 11 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  How is opal formed? 

message: "The internal structure of precious opal makes it diffract light." Speling12345 (talk) 8:22, 13 December 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comment 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Opal. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20120810094721/http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/mines/fossicking/opal.html to http://www.nrw.qld.gov.au/mines/fossicking/opal.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers. —cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 11:58, 28 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Substituted at 01:53, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: A google search, and for sale on eBay, render quite a few mentions of "harlequin opals", but no such mention on WP. 66.96.79.217 (talk) 00:21, 1 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  "harlequin opal"? No mention? 

message: Suggestion to add 'The Royal One' Opal, at 306 carat it's almost double the size of the Aurora Australis.
It was sold in Vegas for $3M USD in 2013, so there's also a need to edit the claim of "most valuable" opal which as currently stand is for the largest but was valued in 2005 at $2.5M AUD. This may very well still be the most valuable but an updated valuation would be needed to justify the claim. 
EAS (talk) 04:20, 20 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: References to support this? (see WP:RS). Vsmith (talk) 00:55, 21 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Suggestion to add 'The Royal One' Opal 

message: Seems the lead image was recently changed to a gem picture with the comment "...Arguably, better to show opal at its best as a gemstone." I've undone that. So, if it is better - then please explain why here. Thanks, Vsmith (talk) 20:25, 10 August 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: And ... why would an image of a finished gem be more attractive (as in attention grabbing) than the current image? The article is not titled Opal gemstones and is not primarily about finished gems. The article is about the mineraloid itself the chemistry, mineralogy, geologic setting, geographic distribution and not just the gem. I do understand that gem fanciers an dealers are more interested in the finished product and making a sale ... however, we aren't here to help them make a buck - just to provide balanced and non-promotional information to the reader. Vsmith (talk) 02:18, 1 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lead image 

message: As an opal dealer I deal with both Australian and Ethiopian Opals.  It is my understanding that Australian Opal is sedimentary and Ethiopian Opal is volcanic.  A discussion of the formation of different types of opals should be included.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rinda Edgmarbou (talk • contribs) 02:00, 25 October 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Opal is formed in situ by the deposition of dissolved silica derived from the chemical weathering of other pre-existing rocks, which may be of many types, including sedimentary or volcanic. This deposition of silica is very much a secondary process and in different physical/chemical environments can form minerals such as chalcedony, chert, flint, siliceous sinter, or opal.Bahudhara (talk) 04:27, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sedimentary vs Volcanic. 

message: Just heard from online source that Opal is radioactive via gamma rays.
Not sure this is correct may some are but most times I doubt that all Opal is radioactive.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2402:6940:206:C00:2083:103:9E13:18A3 (talk) 01:35, 2 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Nope. Bahudhara (talk) 04:27, 3 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Can Opal be Radiactive? 

message: Presumably opals, or precious opals are important gemstones, but the lede doesn't cover this. It should probably be added in some form.Park3r (talk) 19:46, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lede doesn't mention economic or cultural significance of opals

message: I don't understand the formula -Muonium777 (talk) 14:55, 6 March 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  The formula 

message: Wood opal is categorized under Opal.. Wood opal is also not recognized on the List of minerals recognized by the International Mineralogical Association.  Therefore, wood opal is better seen as a type of opal.
Wood opal is would also be a type of petrified wood. — Preceding unsigned comment added by David Condrey (talk • contribs) 11:46, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed merge of [[Wood opal]] into [[Opal]] 

message: {{reflist|refs=
 David Condrey  log talk  10:46, 10 July 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Notes