the.com/variscite
the green stone that spent centuries getting mistaken for turquoise's prettier cousin
means Variscite is a pale to apple-green mineral, a hydrated aluminium phosphate, prized as a semiprecious gemstone and often confused with turquoise.
from Named in the 19th century after Variscia, the Latin name for the Vogtland district of Germany where it was first identified — so the stone literally carries the old Roman label for a corner of Saxony in its name, with the mineral suffix '-ite' tacked on as geologists are fond of doing.
- chemistry
- hydrated aluminum phosphate, born where water meets rock
- origin name
- named for Variscia, an old region of Germany
- color trick
- green comes from chromium and vanadium traces
- famous source
- Utah mines yield prized apple-green specimens
- ancient use
- Neolithic Europeans carved it into beads and amulets
utahlite variscite deposit — mined in piute county, utah since the 1930s, one of the world's largest variscite sources
clay hills variscite — deposits in san juan county, utah, historically used by ancestral puebloan peoples for jewelry