Tourmaline

Tourmalines belong to the most colorful gemstone family. Green tourmaline (verdelite), as well as pink colored tourmaline (rubellite) are varieties of the tourmaline family. They have different coloring elements. Iron and chromium make tourmaline green, manganese makes it pink. There are also rare blue tourmalines (indigolites).

Green Tourmaline, Verdelite (12.18ct)

  • Class: silicates (complex silicate)

  • Genesis: pegmatitic (magmatic, tourmalines form relatively late in “miarolitic”, partly hydrothermally influenced cavities of pegmatitic bodies)

  • Known varieties: rubellite, chrome tourmaline, verdelite, indigolite
  • Colours: red, yellow, green, green-blue, neon blue and neon green (Paraiba tourmaline when copper and manganese are color-causing).

  • Hardness: 7

  • Visual Effects: Cat Eye Effect

  • Most important deposits: Brazil, Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania, USA

Tourmalines often show strong color zoning. Homogeneously colored ones with little color change in different viewing directions are very rare and sought after.

In the jewelery sector there are so-called “watermelon tourmalines”, which show a different color structure from the inside to the outside. This material is often used as discs in earrings and the like. used. Tourmaline was used by seafarers in the past as a pipe cleaner. To do this, certain tourmalines were used and heated, which gave them a surface charge. This charge is similar to rubbing balloons on a sweater and making your hair stand on end. With this property, tourmalines were held into seafarers’ whistles to draw out the ashes. A historical term for some black and dark green tourmalines is therefore “Aschentrekker”.

Red tourmaline, rubellite (19.95 ct)

Violet Tourmaline, Cuprian (2.94 ct)

Tourmaline is one of the minerals with the most interesting inclusions. Since gem quality tourmalines have very few inclusions, these are the ones to look for. But when the inclusions are more frequent and well-defined, the dynamics of nature show themselves very nicely in them. Liquid inclusions that look like pulled apart cloths give an idea of ​​the interaction between solid and liquid during the crystallization process.

Today, many mines want to preserve the tourmaline tiers. Specimens with a few single crystals on bedrock reach prices of up to 1 million euros at auction.

Blue Tourmaline, Indigolite (12.39 ct)

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