moonstone
rough moonstone of Sri Lanka
cabochon of brown moonstone from India
yellow – orange moonstone from india
cabochon of beige moonstone from India
moonstone imitation : a doublet
moonstone cabochon from Sri Lanka
solid like inclusions with adularescence
solid like inclusions, very nice healing fissure
Detailed sheet
moonstone
The moonstone is composed of alkaline feldspar, mainly potassium in other words orthoclase, in its variety “adularia”.
This is actually a microperthite resulting from a microscopic phase separation of platelets from a sodium feldspar, the albite, in the orthoclase during the cooling of the mixture of orthoclase and albite.
The adularescence phenomenon, which is the appearance of bluish reflets, is due to the interference created by these micro platelets of albite in orthoclase forming a network of light diffraction.
According to the layer spacing of these network of albite platelets in the orthoclase, some interference phenomena induces some bluish or whitish reflections that recall moonlight. This phenomenon of diffraction of light in bluish reflections is called “adularescence” but the white moonstone can also present a speckle of the type “cat’s eye”.
Its name comes from the Sanskrit “Shandra Kanti” for moonlight.
There are reports that Pope Leo X owned a stone “that was transformed and transmuted from white to blue according to the transformations and changes of the moon”.
Orange, brown, greenish varieties from India exhibit the speckle phenomenon, some others, very blue, are called “rainbow” because they present the adularescence and labradorescence (as labradorite) phenomenon together, while some others are even green.
CHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS
K[AlSi3O8]
potassium aluminium silicate
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Main color
white
Other colors
blue, grey, yellow, orange
sought after in transparent milky white with bluish reflections
Color of streak
white
Luster
silky
Hardness
6.0 to 6.5
Density
2.56 to 2.59
Cleavage
perfect
Fracture
uneven
easy clivage
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
Transparency
translucent, transparent
milky, opalescent aspect
Refractive index
1.518 - 1.525
Double refraction
0.008
very weak
visible double refraction
No
Dispersion
0,012(0.008)
Pleochroism
absent
Number of colors
1
Fluorescence
weak
bluish, orange
CRYSTALS PROPERTIES
prismatics
crystals system
monoclinic
OTHER INFORMATIONS
Astrological sign
Aries, Gemini, Libra
Month
june
APPROACHING GEMS
Exploited
sites
It is in southern Sri Lanka that you find, the most beautiful ones, they are found in kaolinite within which the moonstone is a kind of nuclei, having resisted the degradation of other feldspars. Rudimentary mines sink up to 50 meters deep. The large moonstones, and of good quality are very rare, but there are some weighing 230 carats. They are also found in Brazil, the United States, India (Madras area), Madagascar, Australia and Tanzania not to mention Switzerland, where this stone, adularia, was named after Mount Adula in the Gotthard massif, where she was discovered.
use in jewelry
It is cut cabochon. To obtain the highest luster, the silver light, or bluish pretending to appear in the surface while it seems at the same time to hide in the rock, its base should be parallel to the planes of alternating layers. If not, the reflection can go unnoticed, and this removes any value to the gem. They are used to make necklaces, pendants, rings, earrings.
The fine jewelry is using the moonstone on many prestigious items, it is also mounted associated with ruby .
The appelation “Ceylon opal” for moonstone is prohibited in jewelry.
Daily care
and precautions
Sensitive to shocks, it must be washed with warm water and wiped with a chamois.
imitations and
treatments
It is copied by a base of translucent cabochon opal welded to a colorless glass. It Is also known the use of a colorless synthetic spinel, that after heat treatment, counterfeits it fairly well. There are also plastic molded adularescent plastics, cut in cabochon, that counterfeiters offer to tourists, mainly in Sri Lanka on tourist sites.
An amethyst heated up, gets an opalescent reflection, on a colorless background. Optical fibers of all colors may be a poor imitation.
Historical
healing properties
In many Asian countries, it is used to relieve pain in patients putting the stones on their various chakras. Carrying within itself the powers of the moon, the moonstone symbolizes femininity and fertility and Muslim women are used to sewing one in their dresses to have many children. It would regulate the female hormonal system by placing a stone on the ovaries and second chakra. The moonstone symbolizes also the innocence of childhood, that is to say virtue without malice.
It would stimulate the imagination and sensitivity, making more aware and premonitory dreams, supporting delicate decision making, developing intuition. It would bring sweetness and tolerance to people perceived as hard and severe, contributing to the happiness and reconciling angry lovers. It was wore during the rising moon to increase love, when in a decreasing time it gave a vision of the future.
The physician Dioscorides, in the first century AD, in his “Materia Medica”, wrote that moonstone cures epilepsy.
Other
Gems
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notre site web
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