Flat inclusions of some impurity in a
gemstone that reflect back light and make the stone appear to have
sparkles buried in it. Many different stones can have this phenomenon, and the sparkle will be a different color depending on what
mineral the
impurity is.
Aventurine quartz and
sunstone are natural stones that do this; sometimes people are fooled by the man-made
goldstone. The phenomenon is related to
asterism and
chatoyancy.