Tourmaline gemstone is a form of crystal called “ Boron Silicate” or “ Crystalline Boron Silicate mineral” It is the composition of various elements such as aluminum, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline has a variety of colours and leveled as a semi-precious gemstone. Usually, Tourmaline hardly matches colour to another tourmaline. They are all time different from each others in colour variety. Tourmaline is also called “ Magic stone” and people had been wearing it to protest themselves.
WHAT IS TOURMALINE?
Tourmaline is the name of a large group of boron silicate, it shares a common crystal structure and same physical and chemical properties.B ut extremely in chemical structure. The extensive range of arrangements along with hint basics and color middles causes tourmaline to occur in more colors and color combinations than any other mineral group.
People like tourmaline a lot and one can see tourmaline in jewelry stores also very easily. Some tourmaline crystals are obtained by mineral collectors and they keep in their collections because of their unique colours and crystal properties. Tourmaline Crystal specimens which have aesthetic shapes, attractive colours and mineral habit can be sold in many thousand dollars even.
OCCURRENCE OF TOURMALINE:
Normally Tourmaline has occurred in an accessory mineral in igneous and metamorphic rocks. Their size of the crystals is usually in millimeter size dispersed through granite, pegmatite and gneiss. By this way, they hardly and rarely take the form of a small amount of rock’s volume.
Tourmaline contains interesting properties. Tourmaline colours look different from different
What is Paraiba Tourmaline? Read this also
angles if viewed in different sides. This is because of Pleochroism. When one sees in their vertical axis, they look darker in colour than if seen through their horizontal axis such as green and blue. Some tourmaline appears to have cat’s eye effect.
Tourmaline is both pyroelectric and piezoelectric. Once, it is put under pressure or temperature change, it will give an electrical charge. During this, dust particles become attached to the crystal ends.
TOURMALINE MINED FROM:
Tourmaline is mostly found in the world including
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
- Zimbabwe,
- Tanzania,
- Usa,Siberia,
- Kenya,
- Nigeria,
- Mozambique,
- Brazil,
- Africa,
- Madagascar,
- Siberia,
- Australia
- and many more.
KINDS OF TOURMALINE:
Tourmaline is found in different kinds such as:
- Indicolite tourmaline
- Black Tourmaline
- Pink Tourmaline
- Rubellite tourmaline
- Green tourmaline
- watermelon tourmaline
- Dravite
- Tourmalated quartz
- Bicolour
- Paraiba Tourmaline
Physical Properties of tourmaline:
| Physical properties of tourmaline | |
| Chemical Classification | Boron silicate |
| Color | black. Blue, green, yellow, pink, red, orange, purple, brown . |
| Streak | White when softer than the streak plate. Colorless when harder than the streak dish. |
| Luster | Glassy |
| Diaphaneity | Translucent to luminous to nearly milky |
| Cleavage | Unclear |
| Hardness | 6 to 7.4 |
| Specific Gravity | 2.7 to 3.4 |
| Diagnostic Properties | The absence of noticeable cleavage, prismatic crystals with curved triangular cross-sections that are often striated, vibrant colors |
| Organic Arrangement | (Ca,Na,K,[]) (Li,Mg,Fe+2,Fe+3,Mn+2,Al,Cr+3,V+3)3(Mg,Al,Fe+3,V+3,Cr+3)6 ((Si,Al,B)6O18) (BO3)3(OH,O)3 (OH,F,O) |
| Mineral Structure | Hexagonal |
| Uses | A popular gemstone and mineral specimen |