Bahia Emerald
Encyclopedia
The Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

 Emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

is one of the largest emerald
Emerald
Emerald is a variety of the mineral beryl colored green by trace amounts of chromium and sometimes vanadium. Beryl has a hardness of 7.5–8 on the 10 point Mohs scale of mineral hardness...

s (or rather, emerald crystal
Crystal
A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituent atoms, molecules, or ions are arranged in an orderly repeating pattern extending in all three spatial dimensions. The scientific study of crystals and crystal formation is known as crystallography...

s embedded in host rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

) and contains the largest single shard ever found. The approximately 840 lbs Brazilian stone narrowly escaped flooding during Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...

 in 2005 during a period of storage in a warehouse in New Orleans. It was subsequently reported stolen in September 2008 from a secured vault in South El Monte
South El Monte, California
South El Monte is a city in the San Gabriel Valley, in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,116, down from 21,144 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...

 in Los Angeles County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.
Whilst the stone has been valued at some $400 million, the true value is unclear. At one point, the emerald was listed for sale on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 for a "Buy It Now" price of $75 million.

History

It originally was mined in the beryl
Beryl
The mineral beryl is a beryllium aluminium cyclosilicate with the chemical formula Be3Al26. The hexagonal crystals of beryl may be very small or range to several meters in size. Terminated crystals are relatively rare...

 mines
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 of western Bahia
Bahia
Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

 State, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, from which it takes its name. Bahia is an archaic form of Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

 baía, meaning 'bay
Bay
A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

' after the bay first seen by European explorers in the 16th century.

After being moved from Brazil to the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, various attempts were made to sell it without success. There were conflicting claims of ownership. Eventually the emerald was seized from a gem dealer in Las Vegas and taken into the custody of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. After a series of legal actions, Judge John A. Kronstadt
John A. Kronstadt
John Arnold Kronstadt is a district judge on the United States District Court for the Central District of California. On April 12, 2011, the Senate voted 96-0 to confirm Kronstadt. He received his judicial commission on April 14, 2011....

 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court announced in September 2010 that he would hear the case. Currently Jerry Ferrara, Kit Morrrison and Todd Armstrong of F&M Holding who have paid more than 1.3 million for the Bahia Emerald are among the claimants to rightful ownership.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK