Gemstones - Tourmalines

Tourmalines come in a wide variety of colors and is referred to as the 'gemstone of the rainbow'. Tourmalines range from red to green and from blue to yellow and they often are two-toned. The gemstone also come in colorless and black. There are also Tourmalines which change their color when the light source changes.

No two Tourmalines are exactly alike even if they look the same. Tourmalines with only a single color are fairly rare.

The name of Tourmaline comes from the Singhalese words 'tura mali'. In translation means 'stone with mixed colors'. The Tourmaline family has an endless number of faces, and for that reason it suits all moods.

Tourmalines are crystals of aluminum boron silicate with a complex and changing composition. Even slight changes in the composition cause completely different colors.

All Tourmalines have a good hardness of 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale.

Tourmaline of an intense red is known as a 'Rubellite', but only if it continues to display the same fine ruby red in artificial light as it did in daylight. If the color changes when the light source does, the stone is called a pink or vivid pink Tourmaline.

Tourmalines have even more names like two colors are known as 'bicolored Tourmalines' and those with more than two as multicolored Tourmalines. If the center of the Tourmaline is red and the area around it green then it is known as 'water melon'. If the crystal is almost colorless and black at the ends only, it is then called a 'Mohrenkopf'.

Tourmalines are found almost all over the world like Brazil, Sri Lanka and South-south-west Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Madagascar, Pakistan, Afghanistan and in the USA.

Scientists are interested in Tourmalines because they can become electrically charged when they are heated and then allowed to cool. Then, they have a positive charge at one end and a negative one at the other, known as 'pyro-electricity'.

Green Tourmalines - is regarded as the classical Tourmaline color. If you ask a gemstone merchant about a Tourmaline, green is the first color he will think of. Some green Tourmalines are very light, others so dark that the green color can only be recognised when the stone is held against the light, there are green Tourmalines in fine leek hues, but also in intense yellowish-green, olive green and brownish-green nuances and there are Tourmalines in the range from blue-green to dark bottle-green.

Chrome makes green Tourmalines look like Emeralds and are also free of inclusions.

Green Tourmalines can be cut in all kinds of different ways and does require special care, since the color intensity of most green Tourmalines is variously developed depending on the direction of growth.

Paraiba Tourmaline - are from the Mina da Batalha in the Federal Brazilian State of Paraiba are small, rare and precious. They are turquoise blue to green and not found in any other gemstone in the world. The exclusiveness of this legendary find makes these rare gemstones real treasures. It was not discovered until the early 1980s.

Tourmaline colors are usually created with iron, manganese, chrome and vanadium are the elements responsible for the beautiful coloring in Tourmalines but the Paraiba Tourmaline is different. It owes its color to copper and it often also contains manganese.

Certain mixtures of copper and manganese can also result in pale grey to violet-blue tones while Copper in high concentrations is responsible for the radiant blue, turquoise and green hues, while violet and red tones are caused by manganese. The vividness of the Paraiba Tourmalines does not reveal itself until the stone has been cut.

Yellow Tourmalines - until recently there were no pure yellows in the rich color range because most of the yellow Tourmalines found had a slight tinge of brown. In Malawi a gemstone deposit with some wonderful yellow Tourmalines was discovered in mid 2000.

It is fine traces of magnesium that are responsible for the electrifying yellow color.

Blue Tourmaline - are the most colorful gemstone of the family. A Tourmaline that is pure blue is a rare thing while other blues color have a more or less noticeable touch of green.

The rare blue Tourmalines originate mostly in Brazil where the magnificent turquoise Paraiba Tourmalines were also discovered. However, they are also found today in the gemstone mines of Namibia, Afghanistan and Pakistan and, since recently, also in those of Nigeria.

Multicolored Tourmalines - are mixed crystals of aluminum boron silicate with a complex and changing composition in the same crystal. Tourmaline crystals have often grown in close proximity to one another, their cross-sections can also contain triangles which are closely joined together and gathered around a nucleus.

Other Tourmalines - Tourmalines that have black at both ends and referred to as a 'Mohrenkopf'. If a Tourmalines has red at one end it used to be called a 'Turk's head Tourmaline'. Bicolored Tourmalines with a red center which changes to green towards the edges are still referred to as 'watermelons'. If the color zones of the crystal lie on top of one another then it is called 'rainbow Tourmaline'.