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Second Floor | Exhibit
Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals
Permanent
Did you know?
Citrine, a gem variety of quartz, gets its gorgeous smoky yellow hue from iron impurities within the mineral
Look For

The Hope Diamond—a world-famous, 45.5-carat blue diamond donated to the Smithsonian by Harry Winston in 1958 and seen by more than 100 million people since then.

A 3-D model of a salt crystal (1.5 billion times the actual size!)

The real-time display of global earthquake data. Maybe you’ll see seismic activity as it happens!

The Whitney Flame Topaz, one of the finest imperial, or “precious,” topaz gems in the world
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Things To Do
- Learn the difference between a mineral and a rock—and see a diversity of examples of both.
- Step into the Mine Gallery and walk through reproductions of four real American mines.
- Try the “Make an Impact” meteorite interactive: choose your meteorite size, speed, and other characteristics, then see how big of an impression your meteorite makes!