Tourmaline Gem Stone, the Rainbow Gem

Tourmaline is termed the Rainbow Gem due to the almost limitless amount of color and hues this stone can have. A Tourmaline Gem Stone can be seen with a pink center and a green outer edge resembling a watermelon, hence the Watermelon Tourmaline. Green and Pink Tourmaline are popular tourmaline colored gems. Another variation is a triangular pattern, again with a more variant color scheme.

This Gem differs drastically in the way it transmits light depending on the color combination. Dark colored crystals are better cut with a prism cut to transmit the light. Lighter stones will show colors better when cut on a perpendicular plane.

There are a variety of minerals in Tourmaline and the mixtures available account for the bright and varied colors. The minerals in Tourmaline are aluminum, magnesium, iron, boron, lithium, other alkali, water and fluorine. It is 7 on the hardness scale.

Found all over the world, this particular gem was first seen in 1872 in Riverside County in California. Maine is the other state that is known for Tourmaline. Russia has a metal like color, but Brazil has more of a pink color. It is also well known in Australia. Before the value of it was discovered, it was valued as a colorful stone and polished.

As varied as the hues this stone comes with, it has a variety of useful applications also. Tourmaline has an unusual capability to develop an electrical charge when it changes from warm to cool or cool to warm temperatures. When this happens, one end becomes electrically positive while the other develops a negative charge. Each end will attract different minerals and therefore different colors.

Tourmaline is very useful in marine applications also. It is used to detect pressure changes for submarine depth measurements and is more accurate than precious stones in determining depth change.

Tourmaline is not only popular and colorful, but possessing the unusual electrical properties makes it extremely valued. Since they are found around the world and are in abundance, a Tourmaline Gem Stone is very affordable. This is a very hard gem stone to imitate, so when you wear Tourmaline Jewelry, you can be comfortable knowing you are wearing the genuine Tourmaline Gem Stone.