It’s weird to think that we perceive two equal curves meeting at a point at the bottom and a cusp at the top, or the combination of the less than sign and number three, like a heart.
Sure, it’s a symbol, the origins of which are nested back in the 6–5th century BC, that we all now assume as being the heart, though an actual human heart looks nothing like it.
But, regardless, it’s a cute symbol that we immediately recognize anywhere as the symbol of love. Well, turns out, nature approves of this symbol, as seen in this amethyst geode that some miners recently found.
This may be an arbitrary shape of a heart that we humans came up with, but turns out nature uses it too
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
So, a bunch of miners were hard at work at Uruguay Minerals’ new Santa Rosa mine in the Catalan area in Artigas, Uruguay, near the border with Brazil.
“It was a normal day at our mine located in the Catalan area in Artigas. The workers were just now allowed in the area to find more amethyst stones in the new mine,” elaborated Marcos Lorenzelli of Uruguay Minerals.
“However, the basalt was very hard, so one of them joked, ‘now we have to find some amazing beautiful stones due to the hard work we have to do here.’”
Miners from Uruguay Minerals have recently unearthed an amethyst geode in the shape of a heart
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
The basalt rock was hard to crack, so the miners were joking that all this toil will lead to something spectacular
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
Turns out, the basalt was harder than usual, so it required quite a bit of work to get it cracked open. But they persevered and did it. And boy, was it worth it!
“After two or three hours, they moved a basalt rock and with the excavator machine, opened a heart-shaped amethyst geode—what a treasure!” explained Lorenzelli.
Yep, you read that correctly: over the span of many, many years, Mother Nature has managed to create a heart-shaped rare mineral geode that the company was lucky enough to unearth.
“After two or three hours, they moved a basalt rock and with the excavator opened a heart-shaped amethyst geode—what a treasure!”
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
Now, geodes come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but this beautiful mineral turned out to be quite a unique find, never before unearthed by the company. “This is a very unique precious stone and it’s the first time we found something like this,” said Lorenzelli.
The company immediately shared this unique find with its followers on their website and various social media where the public was left quite surprised.
Many people were reacting with great surprise, saying that the rare stone looks super adorable. Others said that this might be a sign of love from the planet, and we ought to respond with love back at it, hinting at all of the human-caused climate change problems.
Uruguay Minerals have been making many things with the geodes they dig up, including hearts...
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
... but this is the first time they unearthed a natural heart-shaped geode
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
And since this is the internet, of course there were a select few who joked that this looks like a pretty clever engagement announcement between the two miners.
Images of it also went viral on the internet, namely on Reddit, where one of the pictures got over 115,000 upvotes with over 100 Reddit awards and over 1,200 people engaged in the comments.
Now, this may be a unique find by Uruguay Minerals, but it’s certainly not the only heart shape that the company has as it transforms its geodes to assume a variety of shapes, including hearts, Christmas trees, and angels, among many other variations.
The company decided not to process it as it is just too precious and unique
Image credits: Uruguay Minerals
As for this heart-shaped amethyst geode, Lorenzelli said that they have decided to keep it untouched as it’s just too precious and unique to be processed.
You can check out Uruguay Minerasls' website, Facebook, and YouTube for more precious geode goodness.
What are your thoughts on this? What heart-shaped things have you found naturally occurring in nature? Let us know in the comment section below!
Here are some people's reactions to the heart-shaped geode
