Pink Tourmaline

Most gem tourmalines, including pink and red elbaites, grow in granite-related pegmatites, where scattered gem pockets can hold crystals of very different colors. Brazil, chiefly the pegmatites of Minas Gerais, is the most common source; tourmaline is also mined in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique, and Madagascar and Afghanistan have produced fine red tourmaline. In the United States, San Diego County in California (notably the Himalaya mine) is famed for rubellite, and Maine has produced pink and green tourmaline for about 200 years.

Pink tourmaline is identified as tourmaline by its elongated, striated prismatic crystals, lack of visible cleavage, strong pleochroism and elbaite refractive indices (about 1.615–1.651, birefringence 0.018–0.021). Eye-visible inclusions, typically liquid-filled thread-like cavities parallel to the crystal length, are common and tolerated in pink and red tourmaline. Where pink ends and rubellite begins is a trade judgment, not a fixed boundary. Heat and irradiation are common treatments to improve tourmaline color and can be undetectable with a gemological microscope; irradiation effects can reverse on heating or with long exposure to bright light. Assembled imitations of parti-colored tourmaline (a colored glass or plastic wafer glued between colorless glass) show a glue line or wafer edge at the girdle.

GIA rates tourmaline 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale and generally suitable for everyday wear. It is usually stable to light and most chemicals, but heat can be damaging. Clean with warm, soapy water and a soft brush; ultrasonic and steam cleaners are not recommended. Stones whose color was produced by irradiation may fade with heat or prolonged bright light.

Before modern mineralogy, red and pink tourmaline was often taken for other gems: GIA notes that one of the "rubies" in the Russian crown jewels, the "Caesar's Ruby" pendant, is actually red (rubellite) tourmaline. In the late 1800s much of the pink and red tourmaline from San Diego County, California, was shipped to China, where Empress Dowager Cixi was especially fond of the color; between 1902 and 1910 San Diego mines sent 120 tons of gem rubellite to Imperial China, and the trade collapsed after the fall of the Qing dynasty.

GIA reports that different tourmaline colors are thought to have their own properties; pink tourmaline is said to embody love and is associated with compassion and gentleness. These are beliefs, not verified effects.

According to GIA, tourmaline is an October birthstone and the gem given for the eighth wedding anniversary; GIA also records that ancient mystics believed tourmaline could inspire artistic expression.