COLORS
Tourmaline comes in many colors: blue, green, orange, pink, purple, red, yellow, brown, black, and even colorless!
TOURMALINE
Tourmaline is famous for its dazzling colors. There are rich reds, pastel pinks, peach colors, strong greens, bright yellows, and deep blues. Some have more than one color, like watermelon, which is pink in the middle and green around the outside. People confused tourmaline with other gems, like emeralds and rubies, until the 1800s. That’s when scientists recognized tourmaline as a unique mineral.
History
Over 450
Years Ago
The first recorded tourmaline was a green crystal discovered in 1554 by a Spanish explorer who thought it was emerald.
Famous Tourmaline
Some tourmalines display the cat’s-eye phenomenon. This cat’s-eye gem is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. - Photo courtesy Chip Clark, Smithsonian Institution
what's in a name?
Tourmaline
[tur-muh-leen]
(noun) Tourmaline comes from toramalli, which means “mixed gems” in Sinhala, one of the languages of Sri Lanka.
