LANOT

GM&GMOLOGY,FALL2015 ,VOL.51,NO.3

ColorZonedmerald
JonathanMuyal,NathanRenfro,andAmyCooper
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Figure1.Left:Whentabledown,thestoneismainlycolorless,showingsomepartiallygreenovergrowth.Right:Faceup,thefacetedstonedisplaysanevenandattractivedark
greenemeraldcolor.PhotosbyJonathanMuyal.

Cuttingstyleandorientationareimportantconsiderationswhencuttingnaturalcrystalswithstrongcolorzoning.Carefulplacementofthesezonescan Fee
distributecolorbyreflection,creatingauniformlycoloredfinishedstonewhenviewedfaceup.
Recently,theCarlsbadlaboratoryreceiveda33.73ctgreenoctagonalstepcutshowingstrongcolorzoning(figure1).Thegemcutterskillfullyplaced
athingreencolorzoneinthisemeraldalongthepavilionfacetssothatthestonewouldappearuniformlygreenwheninafaceupposition.Standard
gemologicaltestingrevealedarefractiveindex(RI)of1.5711.578andaspecificgravity(SG)of2.72.Chromiumrelatedfeatureswereobservedin
theredendofthespectrumwhenexaminedwithahandheldspectroscope.Allofthesepropertieswereconsistentwithemerald.Duringmicroscopic
examination,minutejaggedfluidinclusionsandgrowthtubeswereobserved,provingthestonewasofnaturalorigin(figure2).

Figure2.Whenviewedfromtheside,irregulargreencolorzoningisobservedalongwith
minutejaggedfluidinclusions.PhotomicrographbyJonathanMuyalfieldofview14.52mm.

Interestingly,thestoneshowedastronggreencolorzoneveryclosetosomeofthepavilionfacets,aswellashexagonalcolumnarlikegrowthand
irregularzoning(figure3).Thistypeofzoningrepresentsalatestageinfluxofchromiumandvanadiumintothegeneticenvironment,whichwerethen
incorporatedintothecrystallatticeoftheberyl.EnergydispersiveXrayfluorescence(EDXRF)revealedhighlevelsofCrandVinthegreencolor
zone,whichwasconsistentwiththeobservedcolor.Althoughsimilarzoninghasbeenobservedinemeraldpreviously(E.J.GbelinandJ.I.Koivula,
PhotoatlasofInclusionsinGemstones,Volume3,OpinioVerlag,Basel,Switzerland,2008,pp.433434),thezoninginthisspecimenwasquite
distinct.


Figure3.Thecolorlessspotsindicateparallelcolumnargrowthofwhiteberylovergrown
bygreenemerald.PhotomicrographbyJonathanMuyalfieldofview19.27mm.

Thisemeralddemonstratesthesignificanceofproperorientationandcuttingstyleinfashioninghighqualitygemmaterials.

AOUTTHAUTHOR
JonathanMuyalandAmyCooperaregemologists,andNathanRenfroistheanalyticalmanagerofthegemidentificationdepartmentandanalytical
microscopistintheinclusionresearchdepartment,atGIAinCarlsbad,California.

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