What is the actual color of opal?

Everyone knows the bright play of opal, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, or glowing blue or blue with green colors. But why are opals called white, black, brown ("chocolate", "coffee") or fire? It's all about the base color of the stone. The bright play of iridescent colors is not the opal's own color, but an optical effect caused by the decomposition of light falling on the stone. The structure of opal is similar to a diffraction grating, consisting of many opal globules, and the more uniform this structure, the brighter and more varied the play in the stone. The base color of the stone is determined by the amount and composition of impurities in the opal. These can be hydroxides of iron, manganese or aluminum, carbonaceous or other organic matter (bitumen). As a rule, the base colors of noble opals vary from white through shades of gray to black, and from colorless to yellow, red or brown, less often brown shades of colors are found. They also distinguish between crystal-opal, transparent or translucent type of opal, which can be colorless, white and "black".

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