Pink Tourmaline or Rubellite on Quartz - Brazil - crystal minerals 4.4 cm / 61 g / BH730

RUBELLITE or PINK TOURMALINE belongs to the silicate group. It contains sodium, magnesium, iron, lithium, manganese, aluminum, boron, fluorine, and silicon. Its chemical formula is (Mg,Fe,Li,Mn,Al)3Al6(BO3))3Si6.O18(OH,F)4.

It comes in transparent hexagonal crystals (except the black ones) whose colors are sometimes combined (red and green in a magnificent gradient, for example).

Tourmaline comes in many colors: black, pink, green, blue, brown, and colorless. Pink tourmaline is called Rubellite, green tourmaline is called Verdelite, and blue tourmaline is called Indicolite.

Rubellite's hardness is greater than 7/10 on the Mohs scale (10 for diamond) and its average density is 3.1 (1 for water). The line on porcelain is colorless.

The name Tourmaline comes from the Sinhala word tourmali (Indo-European language) which means a category of crystals imported from the island of Sri Lanka.