Elbaite

Unknown Owner

Help improve this recordNo owner is registered for this specimen yet. If it's yours or you know more about it, you can add the owner, provenance, publications and other details.

This admittedly smaller (thumbnail) gem Elbaite crystal from Coronel Murta in Minas Gerais state, Brazil is notable for its fascinating shift in colour. With one flat pinacoid termination its colour transitions from a deep strawberry-red at the rough, irregular, angular end of the prism up through a paler strawberry colour to a larger sherry coloured zone, into pale teal-blue, and culminating in a raspberry pink tip. The pale teal-blue and pale raspberry pink zones also extend along the length of the prism which makes it a very pretty piece indeed. The rough end of the prism is in fact a termination, but it has been impacted by the previous presence of another tourmaline crystal cutting across it and leaving behind an imprint.