Celtic engagement rings - Celtic wedding rings

The gemstone aquamarine is the blue, or perhaps more correctly, blue-green or aqua variety of the mineral beryl and it is the birthstone for March.
Other gemstone color varieties that belong to beryl include emerald, morganite, and heliodor.
Aquamarine is colored by trace amounts of iron that find their way into the crystal structure. Most gem aquamarines have been heat treated to produce the popular blue-green colors from less desirable yellow or pale stones. The leading producer of aquamarines is the country of Brazil, which has many mines. Pakistan, as well as many U.S. localities, produce wonderful specimens as well. Recently, a new mine in China has produced large numbers of excellent flat (stubby) hexagonal crystals, for a fraction of the price of those beautiful Pakistan specimens.
Aquamarine is sometimes found in huge crystals (unlike emerald).  It is also known in a glassy form, often without showing crystal form, and sometimes with many holes or other odd shapes.  Other times a large cluster of prismatic crystals can be seen to all have the same alignment - a sign that it is really a single crystal with many faces.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Shanore News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.