7/27/2019 Genesa Safir

1/4

What Are Rubies and Sapphires?

Rubies and sapphires are varieties of the same mineral, called corundum. This hard mineral, composed

of aluminum and oxygen (Al2O3), comes in many different forms and degrees of clarity. Only the rarer,

clearer crystals are classified as rubies or sapphires, based on their color.1

Of most interest is the source of corundums hardness. Corundum is the second hardest natural mineral,

after diamonds. Because of its hardness, corundum is used as a natural grinding material, called emery

in powdered form. (Emery is commonly found in emery boardsthe disposable files used to trim

fingernails.)

Great heat and pressure were required to transform the original source materials into this hard mineral.

Such an amazing transformation must

have occurred in the heat of the earths

interior, but where and when?

Where Are Rubies and

Sapphires Found?

The modern location of rubies and

sapphires gives us a clue about the place

of their formation. We find them in only

a few places, mainly southern Asia and

eastern Africa. What took place inside

the earth to form these gems and thentransport them to the surface?

The answer varies from place to place,

but the basic story remains the same. At

some point in the past, source rocks

inside the earths crust were subjected to

intense pressures and high temperatures,

causing the atoms to recombine into new

metamorphic (changed) rocks, which

included rubies and sapphires. Later themoving crustal plates and erupting

volcanoes carried these rocks to the

surface.

The details differ in each place. Some

rubies and sapphires are found in high-

grade metamorphic rocks, called gneisses

https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_1https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_1https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_1https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_1

7/27/2019 Genesa Safir

2/4

and granulites, located in Sri Lanka, India, Madagascar, and eastern Africa. In most cases, they formed

at depths of 618 miles (1029 km) in the earths crust, as intense pressures and high temperatures

(above 840F [450C]) transformed sedimentary (water deposited) rocks, such as siltstones and

shales, into metamorphic rocks (Figure 1).2

The best rubies, however, are found in marbles, particularly at mines in Myanmar but also in Vietnam,

Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal.3 These marbles formed when heat and pressure inside the earthchanged, or metamorphosed, soft limestone.

Sapphires are most commonly found in stream beds and other secondary deposits.2To get there, the

nearby rocks must have eroded away and washed down to their current location. The nearby rocks are

made of basalts (rocks that came from basaltic magma in the upper mantle). We might assume that

these basalts are the original source of the gems, but they dont have the right chemistry. So where did

these sapphires originate? They must have formed in the metamorphic rocks located in the earths crust,

above the mantle. When the basaltic magma rose up though the crust, it captured the gems along the

way. The magma then carried the gems to the surface. Later, as water and other natural forces broke

down the basalts, the sapphires were released into alluvial deposits, where they are now mined.

Click picture to view a larger copy in PDF format.

https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_3https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_3https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_3https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_3https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_2

7/27/2019 Genesa Safir

3/4

When Were Rubies and Sapphires Formed?

We know the composition of these gems and their location. But what special conditions could have

created them in the first place and then moved them to the surface?

Geologists have noticed that ruby and sapphire deposits are closely linked to major earth movements .4

Furthermore, they have identified three distinct episodes when these gems formed. These findings helpus to place ruby and sapphire deposits at the correct times within the biblical Creation-Flood

framework of earth history. The global Flood of Noahs day, in particular, involved a series of

catastrophic plate movements that would explain these gems.5

The first episode was early in the year-long Flood catastrophe, when the African and Indian fragments

of the pre-Flood supercontinent Rodinia rapidly collided.6Pre-Flood and early Flood sedimentary and

igneous rocks were buckled, squeezed, and heated, transforming them into the metamorphic gneisses

and granulites that host the ruby and sapphire deposits of eastern Africa, Madagascar, India, and Sri

Lanka. Then, according to the biblical model of earth history, when rapid crustal plate movements were

quickly slowing down at the end of the Flood, the Indian plate collided with the Eurasian plate to formtodays Himalaya mountains. Limestones that had been deposited early in the Flood were then

metamorphosed into the ruby-containing marbles of Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, Pakistan, and

Afghanistan.

During this same period, and extending into the early post-Flood era, residual hotspots in the earths

upper mantle generated pockets of molten basalt around the globe. When the continental plates, now

moving much more slowly, drifted over this molten basalt, the basalt magmas squeezed explosively

through the fractured crust, erupting within hours as volcanoes at the earths surface.7As this magma

passed through the fractured metamorphic rocks, it plucked rock pieces and sapphires from the walls

and carried them to the surface.

This catastrophic activity lasted through the final stages of the Flood and on into the post-Flood era,

when new mountains were still rising and volcanoes exploding. Violent weather then rapidly sculpted

the new surfaces. Wherever rocks were exposed to weathering and erosion, the indestructible rubies

and sapphires were liberated from their hosts and washed into alluvial deposits, later to be mined and

enjoyed by man.

Since rubies and sapphires appear to be products of the Flood, we can understand why they arent

mentioned in the Scriptures until the time of Job. By then, the post-Flood people who scattered from

Babel had migrated across Asia to the places where they would find rubies and sapphires.If this interpretation is correct, the biblical worldview explains why rubies and sapphires are so rare

their formation is restricted to unique conditions when God judged the earth. It also helps to explain

why sapphires will be in the New Jerusalem. They are not just pretty reminders of Gods creativity, but

they serve as eternal reminders of Gods righteousness, judgment, and mercy. Even today, we can wear

such gems as a witnessing tool and as a personal reminder of Gods transforming power on our behalf.

https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_4https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_4https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_4https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_5https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_5https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_5https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_6https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_6https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_6https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_7https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_7https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_7https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_7https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_6https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_5https://answersingenesis.org/geology/rocks-and-minerals/rubies-sapphires/#fn_4

7/27/2019 Genesa Safir

4/4

The Value of Rubies & Sapphires

Rubies and sapphires are the most important colored gemstones in the gem trade,

together accounting for over 50% of global gem production.1

Rubies are far less abundant than blue sapphires of similar quality and thus are of

more value. Flawless, highly prized deep red rubies are seldom larger than threecarats, and those that exceed ten carats are extremely rare.

Large sapphires, in contrast, are relatively common, and numerous stones exceeding 100 carats have

been found. (A carat is the unit of weight for gemstones, which is now internationally defined as equal

to 0.2 gram, or 200 mg, or approximately 0.007 ounce.2)

Transparent raw rubies and sapphires are commonly cut and faceted. Non-transparent stones of fine

color are sometimes smoothly polished, not faceted, if there is indication that they might be star

sapphires or rubies.

Rubies and sapphires have long been part of human history, dating back to Job, an early post-Babelpatriarch around 2000 BC.3Rubies in particular have been prized by monarchs as a symbol of their

wealth and power. In ancient Sanskrit the name for rubies meant queen of precious stones. In the

seventeenth century the King of Bijapur (now in modern India) owned a ruby that weighed over 50

carats. The German Emperor Rudolph II is reported to have possessed a ruby the size of a hens egg.

Rubies are the worlds most expensive gemstones, the best Burmese rubies being valued more than an

equivalent-sized flawless diamond.1The world record paid at auction for a ruby is U.S. $3.63 million

in 1988 for a 15.97 carat Burmese ruby (U.S. $227,300 per carat). (By comparison, a 62 carat flawless

diamond recently sold for just over U.S. $8 million, or U.S. $130,000 per carat.) The world record paid

at auction for a blue sapphire is U.S. $3 million for a spectacular 62 carat rectangular-cut royal blue

Burmese sapphire.

Notes

1. G. Giuliani, D. Ohnenstetter, V. Garnier, A. E. Fallick, M. Rakotondrazafy, and D. Schwarz,

The Geology and Genesis of Gem Corundum Deposits, in Geology of Gem Deposits(Short

Course Series, Volume 37), ed. L. A. Groat (Quebec: Mineralogical Association of Canada,

2007), pp. 2378.

2. K. K. E. Neuendorf, J. P. Mehl, Jr., and J. A. Jackson, eds., Glossary of Geology, 5th ed.

(Alexandria, Virginia: American Geological Institute, 2005).3. H. M. Morris, The Remarkable Record of Job(Santee, California: Master Books, 1988), pp. 12

16.