Elbaite

M

0 for sale

Scepter-shaped crystal with a well crystallized green top and pink-tan body. Most of the green outer layer has been naturally dissolved away (from the bottom up!) by corrosive pocket solutions, leaving the pink and tan interior zone, and the characteristic etch-generated scepter habit. This phenomenon is related to the hemimorphic (and hence dissymmetric) nature of tourmaline crystals, making the surface of one termination more suceptible to dissolution than the other. Apparently the green elbaite outer zones are more soluble than the red or tan cores, and dissolve preferentially, leaving these characteristic shapes.