Tourmaline

Looking across the hilly Californian landscape toward Queen Mountain, one could not begin to imagine the treasures which lay beneath and have come out of the world-famous Tourmaline Queen mine.  Of all the wonderful gem pegmatite bodies in the Pala District of San Diego County, the mere mention of the Tourmaline Queen mine evokes excitement and sublime specimens!  This off-matrix, subby prismatic crystal is a wonderful Indicolite, the varietal name of blue Tourmaline, and terminates with a near-perfectly flat pinacoid of mulberry-red.  This attractively chunky crystal is typically triangular in cross-section, but has the habit whereby each of the three prism faces are equally curved, like the piston shape of a rotary engine.  The prism faces are vertically striated with the prism grading from a cream base, through translucent teal-blue to a thin emerald-green band, then on through vivid indigo to the mulberry cap.  It’s just beautiful.  No more need be said!