4.19 Carat Green Tourmaline

Tourmaline is a colossal family of silicates having over 30 different members, with the most focus is given to Elbaite and Schorl as a gemstone, and Elbaite being the most common. Along with the well known pinks and greens, Tourmaline comes in every color of the rainbow. Radical blues, purples, reds, yellows, oranges, browns, black, and even colorless tourmalines are available. With a Mohs hardness ranging from 7-7.5 while having no cleavage, and with a refractive index between 1.61 to 1.65, tourmaline is well suited for jewelry purposes. Although Tourmaline possesses some of the most saturated colors, it can often show 2 colors face up! This is caused by light splitting into 2 separate paths within the stone, while different wavelengths are absorbed along these separate paths. This is called pleochroism, and tourmaline is famous for it. Tourmaline can be treated by low level heating, this is undetectable and should always be disclosed. Though Tourmaline can be grown in a lab, it is more expensive to produce than to mine. Some other lab grown materials can be used to mimic tourmaline, but are readily distinguishable.