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)