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Opal consists of microscopic silica spheres packed with water

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That wildly expensive iridescent gemstone is fundamentally just fancy damp sand. Opal lacks a rigid crystal structure entirely. Instead, it is formed from billions of tiny, perfectly stacked silica spheres with actual water trapped in the microscopic gaps between them. The dazzling flashes of color happen because those spheres uniquely diffract passing wavelengths.

Opal consists of microscopic silica spheres packed with water
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