A Hawaiian Volcano is Literally Erupting Gemstones Right Now

Little green gemstones are raining out of the sky in Hawaii

A volcano in Hawaii has local residents amazed as it is now spitting out little green gemstones, four weeks after it began erupting lava and ash:

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. pic.twitter.com/inJWxOp66t

— Erin Jordan (@ErinJordan_WX) June 11, 2018

Some olivines that popped out of an a’a flow. Kilauea’s little gems. #hawaii #kilauea #olivine #lovevolcanoes https://t.co/1X2ACcWu7n pic.twitter.com/8UaA1IrKEd

— GEOetc (@GEOetc2) June 10, 2018

 

The tiny green crystals, known as olivines or peridot, are a common mineral found in rapidly cooled lava.

They’re formed when the blast from the eruption forcibly separates the mineral from the rest of the molten and as a result, form dazzling gemstones.

Although the majority of the destruction caused by the volcano has passed, the near-mantle magma that’s erupting now is as hot as you can get – around 2,040°F, and article in IFL Science explains:

“This makes the appearance of plenty of olivine more likely than it was a month or so ago.”

Olivine is actually already everywhere in Hawaii in the form of sand, which came from weathered down gemstones from earlier volcanic eruptions. Geologist David Bressan and volcanologist Janine Krippner pointed out on Twitter that there’s an entire beach made of olivine on the Big Island.