Aquamarine

The cool beauty of aquamarine plus its affordability have made it one of the more popular blue/green gemstones.

Too often, we believe, demand for sky blue gems sends aquamarine to the heat treater.

Aquamarine's versatility makes it popular with designers and faceters. And aquamarine is one of those gems commonly found in large sizes.

Aquamarine now rivals ruby, rapphire and it's sister the Emerald for popularity. One reason may be that aquamarines tend to be flawless, have excellent color distribution and are relatively easy to cut. Aquamarine has a hardness of 7 on the Mohs scale but is somewhat brittle and sensitive to pressure.

Santa Maria is the name for a rare and intensely deep blue aquamarine from Brazil's Santa Maria de Itabira mine.

Properties

• Crystal System - Hexagonal
• Hardness - 7.5 to 8
• Specific Gravity - 2.68 to 2.73
• Refraction - Double
• Refractive Index - 1.57 to 1.59
• Dispersion - .014
• Birefringence - .005 to .009
• Wearability - Excellent
• Special Care - None