Starting in September, Indonesia's Mount Sinabung began erupting yet again. In the days that followed, ash and smoke were shot into the air multiple times. As a result, nearby towns turned gray from repeated blows by the volcano. Photo: A man uses his mobile phone as Mount Sinabung continues to erupt, with hot smoke spewing from the volcano, in the Karo district on the north of Indonesia's Sumatra island on November 18, 2013. Officials said a week ago at more than 5,000 people had fled their homes since the volcano erupted early this month. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

Youths smeared in coloured powder and dressed as Lord Krishna (L) and deity Radha (R) celebrate with others the Holi festival, the Hindu spring festival of colours, in Kolkata on March 17, 2022. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

There is an endless bounty of eye-catching gemstones throughout the world and this spectacular boulder opal is one unique beauty that looks like a shimmering crystal encased in a tree fossil. Its opalescent sheen seeps through the cracks of the seemingly wooden rings in lustrous hues of emerald green and aqua blue. Like something out of a fairy tale, the triangular piece radiates through an organic pattern mimicking the growth rings of tree.

An oversized, prehistoric praying mantis wreaks havoc in a freeway underpass as it overturns cars and trucks, in a film still from “The Deadly Mantis”, directed by Nathan Juran, 1957. (Photo by Universal Pictures/Courtesy of Getty Images)

Japan's delegation gather to sign the formal surrender document on the U.S. Navy battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay in a September 2, 1945 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/US Navy)

People react following the verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, found guilty of the death of George Floyd, at BLM Plaza in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 20, 2021. (Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

In this picture taken on Sunday, March 5, 2017, a Tehran's urban animal control worker catches a stray dog after being shot with his anesthetic dart on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, Iran. The shelter has been hired by the Tehran city government to take a new, more humane approach to deal with the burgeoning problem of stray dogs in the capital. It’s a sign of changing attitudes among officials in a country where Islamic authorities long saw dogs as “un-Islamic” and would at times confiscate them from people who kept them as pets. (Photo by Vahid Salemi/AP Photo)

A girl competes during a Hobby horsing competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Several dozen kids, 48 girls and one boy, from first-graders to teenagers gathered in a gymnasium in northern St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, for a hobby horsing competition. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)