1.6" Polished Rubellite Tourmaline Slice - Siberia

Polished Rubellite Tourmaline Slice - Siberia #207905

This is a gorgeous cross-sectional slice of a rubellite tourmaline crystal that was collected from the Malkhan pegmatite field of Eastern Siberia, Russia. It features a three pointed star with deep magenta coloration, a magenta core, and a pink outer rim, making for an alluring and colorful specimen. This tourmaline slice has been polished to a glossy finish along each face and would be suitable for jewelry.

Elbaite is a form of tourmaline and is perhaps the most multicolored mineral. It has been discovered in virtually every color of the spectrum and has dramatically increased in popularity since the 1990s. While specimens are commonly faceted into gemstones, most high quality crystals are left as is, or are cut and sold as cross-sectional slices. Elbaite forms as short, stubby, and/or elongated prismatic crystals, often with striations that run along their length. Aggregates of elbaite can occur as botryoidal, columnar, radiating crystals, and in compact masses.

Elbaite has a variety of names (classic and modern) depending on the colors it presents, including achroite (colorless variety), blue cap tourmaline, chrome tourmaline (green variety caused by chromium impurities), fluor-elbaite, indicolite (blue variety), Moor's head tourmaline, mushroom tourmaline, Paraiba tourmaline, rubellite (pink-red variety), siberite (purple variety), verdelite (green variety), and watermelon tourmaline (green exterior with red interior).

The chemical formula of elbaite is Na(Li,Al)3Al6(BO3)3Si6O18(OH)4

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