Let's say it right away, tanzanite is a very exclusive stone. Discovered just a few decades ago, this mineral is found in one and only place on our planet and, as we will see, its characteristics make it a very popular stone in jewelry. Let's start with a bit of history first…because the history of tanzanite is a real adventure story. Buy Purplish Blue Tanzanite Gemstone from gandharagems.

History of Tanzanite Stone

In the 1960s, a violent storm hit the Merelani Hills in Tanzania, hills close to Africa's highest peak, the famous Kilimanjaro. Frightened, the Maasai nomads who lived there fled. When they returned, they found very shiny blue stones on the ground. They brought the mysterious stones to a local explorer who, unable to identify the tanzanite Stone, sent them to a gemologist in Arusha in northern Tanzania. Also, Read - Faceted Purple Blue Tanzanite Moreover, They were also incapable to recognize them and, in favor, sent them to his dad, also a gemologist, who lived in New York. In the United States, the stones were analyzed at the GIA (Gemological Institute of America, world reference in gemology) which returned the following verdict: the stones were a blue variety, hitherto unknown, of zoisite, a gem which does not was hitherto known only in a brownish color. Exposed to a temperature of 600 degrees, the stones took on and kept a blue color verging on violet, unique in its kind. A few years later, the owner of the Tiffany & Co jewelry store, H. Pratt, fell head over heels in love with zoisites from Tanzania and renamed them tanzanites, in honor of their country of origin.

Origins of Tanzanite

As its name suggests, the tanzanite Stone comes from Tanzania. It is also today the one and the only place in the world where it can be found.

Properties of Tanzanite

As we have said, tanzanite is a variety of zoisite which is part of the family of silicates, also grouping tourmaline and garnet. It is rated 6.5/10 on the Mohs scale, the famous stone resistance scale. Tanzanite could well be included in the list of precious stones - a designation reserved only for sapphires, rubies, emeralds, and diamonds - for several reasons:

Tanzanite Stone Rarity

From a geological point of view, the tanzanite Stone is up to 1000 times rarer than diamonds. Some specialists estimate the remaining reserves at about 21 tons and that there are about 30 years of exploitation left before this mine is closed.

Tanzanite Stone color

Tanzanite is a mineral that has nothing to envy with the famous sapphire. This stone has the particularity of being what is called pleochroism, that is to say, that its color changes slightly depending on the angle from which you look at it! Thus, tanzanite Stone is defined by a blue color with purple reflections or purple with blue reflections … everything is a question of point of view, in the true sense of the term;) Note: Although the most common color is this specific blue, there are also orange, pink, yellow, or green tanzanites.