One of the questions I get asked frequently is what distinguishes one gemstone from another. The name of the gemstones we know and love, like sapphire, emerald, ruby, etc., are names that were given to them thousands of years ago when gemstones were categorized by their color alone. Science has taught us that gemstones are actually categorized into mineral types, and each mineral type is distinctive from each other because of its chemical composition and its crystal structure. For instance, just because a sapphire and tanzanite are both blue, they are very different minerals.
Here are some of the mineral names with the gemstone names we are familiar with!
Corundum: Sapphire and Ruby. Corundum comes in all colors of the rainbow, including red which we call ruby, and blue which we call sapphire! Each color of corundum has a different trace element that causes the various colors.
Beryl: Emerald, aquamarine and green beryl
Zoisite: Tanzanite
Olivine: Peridot
Quartz: Amethyst, citrine, smokey quartz, rose quartz
Garnet: Garnet is not a single mineral, but describes a group of several closely related minerals. We usually think of the brownish red color to describe garnet, but garnet can be other colors too! Green garnets can be either tsavorite (the ‘t’ is silent) or demantoid. Spessartine garnets are golden and rhodolite garnets are purple-red.
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Picture and earrings from @Omiprive
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