Aquamarine Gemstone Facts – History, Colors and Properties 

A stone which easily invokes soothing and calm feeling of the sea, Aquamarine is a gemstone known for humans for thousands of years.  It is a stone treasured by many civilizations throughout the history. Therefore, I decided to write this article about aquamarine gemstone facts as the stone indeed has quite lot of interesting facts.

Aquamarine belongs to the Beryl family of gemstones where emerald, morganite, goshenite, yellow beryl and crysoberyl are also a part of. The name aquamarine is the Latin name for “water of the sea” which was given because of the color of the stone.   This name is the ideal for this spectacular gemstone as almost all different color tones of sea are represented by the color range of aquamarine .

In this post, I will go through aspects such as history and physical properties of aquamarine and there is another post about the metaphysical and healing properties of aquamarine.

Aquamarine Gemstone Facts

Aquamarine is the birthstone of March and for the zodiac sign Scorpio. It is also the gem of 19^th wedding anniversary.  Since aquamarine is believed to help long lasting relationships, aquamarine jewelry is popular among couples well before the 19^th anniversary as well.

There are many interesting things to discuss under aquamarine gemstone facts and therefore I will do it under few sub-sections,

1. History of Aquamarine
2. Mining Regions
3. Color Varieties
4. Physical Properties

Let’s go through one by one.

1.     History of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is a gemstone which was used even by the ancient Egyptians and Sumerians. Archeologists have found this gemstone in ancient Egyptian tombs. Greek artists used aquamarine in their art about 2000 years ago.

The gemstone was associated with the sea for a long time. Probably influenced by the color of the stone, Aquamarine was believed to be a treasure of mermaids.

Aquamarine was also popular among sailors as a talisman for protection and good luck in the sea and they believed it can protect them from sea sickness and shipwrecks. They have sometimes even thrown the stone into the sea when they were caught in a storm in order to calm the gods. Roman fisherman believed that aquamarine increases their fish harvest and they are the ones who gave the stone the name “aqua marina” meaning “water of the sea”.

An aquamarine found in Marambaya, Minas Gerais (Brazil) in 1910 weighing over 200 pounds is the largest ever recorded and it was later cut into thousands of pieces. The world famous “Dom Pedro Aquamarine” is the world’s largest faceted aquamarine and it is kept for display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Take a look at that beauty in this video

Here is a picture of the same

There are many beliefs which surrounds this stone. One such belief is that, when the energy of the stone is deteriorated, it should be submerged in water and exposed to the full moon during the night. This will reenergize the aquamarine stone.

2.     Mining Regions of Aquamarine

The main country for mining of aquamarine is Brazil and mines are spread all across the country. Russian aquamarine deposit in the Ural Mountains was another famous one but seems like it has dried out.

Other commercially important mines are in Australia (Queensland), Myanmar (Burma), China, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe and United States.

3.     Color Varieties

As the name of the stone suggests, aquamarine’s color is the sea water color in its all shades. The most desired and the most expensive color of aquamarine is a strong blue color ( Please refer to the video below).

The coloring agent of aquamarine is iron and there are two different types of iron found in aquamarine. Those are ferrous iron and ferric iron. The ferrous iron gives the nice blue color and ferric iron brings a green shade.

It is common to find raw aquamarine mixed with a green shade and since these are less expensive, it is a frequent practice to heat those aquamarine stones to 725 -800 degrees F ( 400-450 degrees C) to get the desired blue color.  If the heat goes beyond the limit, the stone can discolor.

There are certain aquamarine stones which appears as colorless in daylight but displays a beautiful color under the light.

Here is a great video by Geological Institute of America (GIA) which introduces several different color tones of aquamarine (different color shades are extremely important to be familiar with when learning aquamarine gemstone facts as it is a key factor in deciding the price of the stone or the jewelry).

Certain color varieties of aquamarine are called in different trade terms depending on the origin of stones.

Santa Maria – This is the trade term for the fine aquamarines which comes from Santa Maria mine in Ceara, Brazil.

Santa Maria Africana – This is the trade term for fine aquamarines from Mozambique and these are available in the market since 1991. The name is given since the quality of stones are equal to that of actual Brazilian Santa Maria aquamarine.

Maxxie – These aquamarines comes from the Maxxie mine in Minas Gerais (Brazil) and has a deep blue color which fades in daylight ( turns to a yellow green color). These stones are made more beautiful through irradiation but the color change does not last.

Although most available aquamarine stones are blue, there are greenish aquamarines as well. But in general, more the strength of green, lesser the price of the stone.

4.     Physical Properties

Physical properties are also an important aspect of aquamarine gemstone facts. I am going to summarize all the main properties of aquamarine in a table as that makes it easier to grasp all the information.

Aquamarine is sensitive to pressure. Therefore good care must be give during cutting and jewelry making (the fact that aquamarine changes color when heated is also an important point to remember during jewelry making). But since the hardness is 7.5-8, the jewelry with aquamarine is suitable for everyday wear.

It is important to know that sometimes aquamarine can be confused with kyanite, blue topaz, tourmaline, zircon, eudase and glass imitations.  There aren’t any synthetic aquamarine but aquamarine colored synthetic spinel are sold in the trade occasionally.

Final Thoughts

I am a huge fan of nature and in particular, the sea. The sea brings the happiest version of me and I love anything which is connected with sea. The unique colors of aquamarine and the name of the stone always brings some amount of joy that sea gives me and hence I totally adore this magnificent gemstone.

I believe I managed to make you also love this stone at least a little bit and you learnt something new in the process.

Hope you liked this post and I would love to hear your thoughts and any questions you might have.

p.s.

If you are looking to buy an aquamarine gemstone or a jewelry, this article might help you – “How to buy jewelry online ?” 

If you want to know more about the aquamarine stone meaning and its metaphysical healing properties, please refer to this article. – “Aquamarine Stone Meaning”