Aquamarine as a Timeless Gemstone

Aquamarine actually takes its name from the latin words "aqua" and "marina", refering literally to "waters of the ocean". It's currently one of the most sought after blue gemstones in the trade, along with sapphire and tanzanite. Many Aquamarine stones possess a greenish blue hue, drawing their distinct color from the presence of two different ions of the element iron. Aquamarine is the blue variety of a mineral species known as Beryl. Other Gemstones that belong to this species, like Heliodor and Emerald share much of Aquamarine's composition as a beryllium aluminum silicate. Differences between these varieties arise from trace elements in their chemistry, which are also responsible for the famous colors that make these gemstones so vibrant to the human eye.

The municipality of Santa Maria in the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil, is famously known for producing deeper shades of the blue beryl. Its popular association with these desired gemstones has caused the trade to adopt the locale as a common trade name for medium to medium dark colored pure blue stones. Nowadays these “Santa Maria” aquamarines can fetch prices that sometimes rival those of the ‘big three’. Fine specimens of aquamarine are often set into high-end jewelry, or even pieces of royalty like the exquisite pineflower tiara owned by Princess Anne of Great Britain.

Another very famous gem-bearing destination in Brazil would be the state of Minas Gerais. It is often considered as one of the best sources for gemstones worldwide, due to the geography being an ideal setting for crystal formation over the past centuries and millennia. Many varieties and species can be mined from this place, including specimens of tourmaline, quartz, amethyst, mica, kunzite, emerald, diamond and of course aquamarine. Brazil’s more recent movement in the jewellery trade has been one of vertical integration. The potential of their resources can be carried down the pipeline to local gem cutters, jewelry craftsmen and eventually fine retail establishments. This way, the country’s people can generate more national profit from the rich supplies of raw gemstones in their territory. Aquamarine is just one of the many gem varieties of Brazil that has made its way into the heart of our international gemstone trade.

Many sources of aquamarine produce elongated crystals that can sometimes appear very clear and watery. These hexagonal columns can sometimes resemble quartz crystals, but instead of terminating at a point, they cap off with a flat surface. Raw crystals are sometimes kept in tact for mineral collectors, due to the beautiful growth formations that aquamarine can come in. Some certain specimens are cut into elongated shapes and contours so that a majority of the original crystal’s carat weight can be saved. Other options can also include free-form cutting and calibrated manufacturing. The recent years have seen many famous gemstone sculptors work with a variety of media, including high-clarity aquamarine stones. These make for an ideal sculptor’s material due to the lower concentrations of mineral or liquid inclusions within each individual piece of crystal.

There is also a large output of translucent aquamarine that comes out of many worldwide sources. Much of this production is used either for intricate gemstone carvings or commercial beadwork resources. Aquamarine’s traditional bluish coloration is relatively rare for large-sized natural gemstones, so even these pieces can fetch high prices in their workable carat weight ranges. This category of aquamarine supply is priced much differently though, compared to the finer transparent and medium-blue qualities of the variety.

Aquamarine is sometimes used as an alternate choice for sapphire, however the two gems often do not possess the same tone and depth of color. Sapphire is usually more violetish blue, and aquamarine normally has some hint of green modifying color to its palette. Dealers in today’s gemstone trade might recommend tanzanite as a more accurate substitute instead. Aquamarine itself has come to be seen as a fine gem in its own right, rather than just an alternate choice for a blue color. Its own range of refreshing hues has often been coveted for pastel-themed jewelry artworks, and so any demand is not always met with an adequate supply answer. In an expected response to this, gemstone treatment facilities now produce a high-carat output of irradiated blue topaz. This option is far less pricey when compared with equivalently colored aquamarine, however there is almost no rarity hierarchy that governs the colors of treated blue topaz. This fact allows the trade to sell the material in very commercial price ranges, providing a more affordable alternative to aquamarine’s light blue colors.

Caring for Jewelry Items and Evaluation of Gemstones

Aquamarine is a pretty durable stone, with a high enough hardness of 7.5 to 8 on the Moh’s scale. It is also classified as a type-1 clarity gemstone, which means that it tends to be less included than other gem species. Despite these positive traits, always make sure that any cleaning-chemical agent you purchase won’t harm the gemstone or its treatment-based additives if ever any are present. Artificial surface coatings for example can be damaged by acidic solutions. High temperature steam-cleaning may have an effect on fillers or other inclusions as well. Thermal shock can pose a threat to many gemstones, so always be knowledgeable about the type of gem you possess.

Jewelry Repair

It’s always best to remove any gemstone from its jewelry mounting before repair work is done on the metal. Re-tipping prongs requires torch heat, and this can damage the stone significantly. Color alterations may be a side-effect of exposing aquamarine to a high-temperature flame. Ask your jeweler for more precautionary advice as well.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is aquamarine often heat-treated?

A significant percentage of aquamarine on today’s market is enhanced for color using temperature-based treatments that are virtually undetectable for nearly all cases. Despite this, there is definitely a known hierarchy for the resulting colors and their rarity-to-price statistics. Not all aquamarine stones will result in beautiful deeper blues after heating procedures are applied. Heat normally destroys the yellow-component in aquamarine, so that the stone will appear to be a more pure blue compared to the typical greenish sea-blue stones. This means that despite any improvement, the rarest blue aquamarines with prime saturations will still command the highest prices of the lot. Treatment endeavors (usually) when successful, will merely improve the purity of a stone’s blue color.

Can aquamarine’s colors overlap with the range of blue sapphire?

It is seldom seen, but entirely possible. Some darker colored aquamarine stones can appear to be medium blue, which does in fact overlap with the color range of blue sapphire. Though this is said in terms of tone and saturation. Many blue sapphires are actually a shade of violetish blue, and aquamarine’s more common modifying hue is actually greenish.

How does aquamarine rank in comparison to the other beryl species?

According to popularity and value, emerald is the top variety of beryl available on the gem markets today. After this, aquamarine is usually the next strongest player. Its finest qualities can reach prices approaching those of mid-to-high market emeralds. The trade places aquamarine as one of the five most valuable blue gemstone varieties of the modern world, along with blue diamond, blue sapphire, Paraiba tourmaline and tanzanite.

Why do some bigger aquamarine stones have a cheaper per-carat price than certain smaller ones?

This is an observation made by buyers in the trade today. The price-per-carat of aquamarine is highly dependent on the depth and saturation of its color. Larger sizes of crystal have a higher tendency to display strong color due to the time it takes for light to pass through the material. Certain wavelengths of light are selectively absorbed by the crystal’s material in order to produce the blue coloration, so more material means a greater tendency for the color to appear. Strong blue hues present in small sizes of aquamarine are certainly rare occurrences, and so many do put a premium on the per-carat prices of such precious gemstones.

Many aquamarine gems are polished as rectangular step-cuts or emerald cuts. Why is that?

Crystals of aquamarine have a tendency to grow as flat-capped hexagonal prisms. When you have this kind of shape, the best weight-saving popular cut to administer is the emerald-cut. This type of cut is named after emerald due to a similar habit of that variety’s crystal growth. Both emerald and aquamarine’s raw forms allow gem cutters to benefit greatly from employing this style of cutting.

What are some of the trade terms often used for aquamarine?

The Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil has been famously known for producing the first “Santa Maria” deep blue aquamarine specimens. Today other trade terms have been coined based on some localities where aquamarine gemstones have been found. “Santa Maria Africana” is a trade label given to high quality stones that have come out of Mozambique in the African continent. “Espirito Santo” is another label for some aquamarine blues from Brazil that have not come to possess the famous deeper saturations of color.

The Scientific Identification of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is the lighter blue variety of the mineral species known as beryl. It is essentially a crystallized beryllium aluminum cyclosilicate, whose pastel color comes from the presence and interaction of Fe2+ and Fe3+ ions. The crystals habit of raw aquamarine is usually hexagonal and columnar, with a flat cap at the top. Darker forms of aquamarine have been labeled by another variety term- Maxixe, although this variety has been known to fade under exposure to sunlight, unlike its paler cousin.

When separating aquamarine from other gemstones, one may test for a series of gemological traits that when taken together, can positively identify this beryl variety. Aquamarine possesses a refractive index of about 1.577 to 1.583, and a birefringence value of around 0.005 to 0.009. Using simple tools like the refractometer can help eliminate many blue imitations from being passed off as blue beryl. Manufactured glass for example, will most likely show a refractive index that is much different from that of aquamarine. It also won’t show any birefringence when you rotate the polarizing filter on your refractometer. This is because blue glass doesn’t have any crystalline structure to its atoms, and is actually an amorphous material. Gemstones like aquamarine have a repeating arrangement of atoms that define its essential chemical structure and crystal lattice. Aquamarine can also be tested using other instruments like the polariscope and conosphere, to which it would show to be a doubly refractive gem with a uniaxial optic character. This trait can adequately separate it from one of its more common alternatives; treated blue topaz, which possesses a biaxial optic character.

How is Aquamarine Heated to Improve Its Color?

A significant percentage of the world’s raw aquamarine supply maintains a greenish tint or color component. This is because its trace elements actually induce both a yellow and a blue color to the crystal material. The trade currently prefers the purer blue stones, due to their rarity, demand and beauty. In light of this condition, many treatment facilities have opted to promote aquamarine temperature treatments in order to remove the yellow component of the stones. They do this by carefully studying how the crystal’s ions react to the different heat levels applied during treatment. Most facilities today use a temperature of around 375 degrees Celsius for this procedure, eliminating any yellowish or greenish overcast and fully showcasing the stone’s blue hue. While this is optimal to increase the value of some stones, not all gems will react positively to treatment. Some could acquire undesirable colors or crack under thermal shock.

What is Maxixe?

Aquamarine is the only blue beryl that has become widely popular as a mainstream variety in the jewellery industry, but there is actually a darker variety that has not been able to penetrate the market on a commercial level. This beryl variety is known as Maxixe, which is sometimes confused with aquamarine due to their overlapping color ranges. Many buyers sometimes accidentally purchase maxixe at trade fairs, only to find out about their gemstone’s true identity once color alteration is observed. Aquamarine’s saturation and intensity is stable, however Maxixe tends to fade under exposure to strong lights. Its captivating darker blue colors can resemble the finest aquamarine specimens, but they can also vanish quite quickly.

In today’s market, the finest aquamarine gemstones showcase a pure blue, medium to medium dark toned, intense coloration. Any greenish tinted stones are normally priced lower, as are stones that possess a light tone and grayish saturation. Despite this, there are many different preferences for aquamarine colors, such as some who do actually prefer the seafoam hues.

Long ago, the finest colors of aquamarine were quite different than the selection mostly recognized today. In the past, many people desired the greener aquamarine stones and prized them as the top-quality specimens of this variety. Through the years, people have seen that this hue (despite its beauty) was actually quite commonly found amongst the mining output of many international sources. The much rarer pure blue variety soon rose in demand, while the greenish seafoam colors remained at mid-market levels in the trade. Today, many people still prefer a little greenish tint to their aquamarine stones, but the majority of dealers consider the pure blue stones to be the most expensive and sought after (at least within the fine-quality market sector). Some others say that the advent of aquamarine heat treatment has now allowed many wholesalers to offer blue aquamarine on a steady supply basis. Stones that were once mostly found in greenish blue could now be altered to look more like the primary blues of top quality showcases. This lets aquamarine compete once more against alternatives like irradiated blue topaz on the middle-market sections of the trade. Since aquamarine’s original color is still a basis for the resulting heat-treated gem’s output, prices of blue stones have remained too high to penetrate the commercial-level markets as much as the blue topaz, which has garnered its largest audience base in that sector.

Today, aquamarine is used in a variety of styles for the jewellery industry. Most of the eye-clean light colored material is cut into calibrated sizes for mid-market consumption. Darker blues are often cut with custom dimensions to be set as solo or main gemstones for fine jewelry articles. Drop earrings and pendants are both popular choices for polished aquamarine stones. Designers have to take into consideration the nature of this gemstone’s supply availability when thinking up ideas. The raw crystals are usually quite elongated, so most cutters prefer to fashion gemstones either in the pear-shape or emerald-cut styles to save more carat-weight from the original rough. You’ll find many loose aquamarine stones to be available in these two cutting styles, but a bit fewer of them in styles such as round or square cuts.

While aquamarine can be synthesized via methods like the hydrothermal growth technique, modern gemological knowledge and equipment can help one separate the man-made counterparts from the naturally mined stones. Aquamarine’s wide list of imitations can also be distinguished using basic tools like the refractometer, microscope and polariscope. It’s one of those gem varieties that has many economical alternatives on the market, but is relatively easy to separate as long as you have the right setup and a suitable amount of gemstone knowledge.