YEKATERINBURG, December 29. /TASS/. A Russian dolerite crystal, Oil Drop, is claiming the title of the world’s biggest. Russia’s Yekaterinburg-based Jewelry House has filed an application with the Guinness World Records to register the Oil Drop as the world’s biggest faceted dolerite, the House’s director general, Viktor Moiseikin, told TASS on Monday.
The eleven-kilogram crystal /55,000 carats/ looks like an oil drop. It is bluish-black with shades of deep velvety black when submerged in water.
“The crystal has 2,260 facets. It was polished on a unique machine that was designed by Vladimir Sapozhnikov specifically for this job. It took more than five years to polish the crystal,” Moiseikin said.
The mineral was discovered in Southern Urals and originally weighed more than 100 kilograms. Specialists say the Urals crystal may be a close kin to the Stonehenge dolerite stones. “It is a big scientific mystery how dolerite blocks appeared on the British Islands, since there is no dolerite there but it is in abundance in the Urals,” Moiseikin said.
The Guinness World Records will pass a decision on the Oil Drop by March, since so far there is no such nomination. It is planned to show the record-breaking crystal across the globe in 2015. Later on, it will be auctioned off on condition it stays in Russia.