Tourmaline with Lepidolite and Cleavelandite

An integrated pair of quite complex Tourmaline prisms, most probably Elbaite, from the Himalaya mine at Mesa Grande in San Diego County, California, USA. Both crystals are a uniform mauve candy pink which are mainly translucent but do contain semi-transparent zones. At one end the terminations are obvious although appear to have undergone natural etching followed by recrystallisation in the form of glassy undulating and pitted surfaces and nested conchoidal patterns. The larger prism appears to have been naturally broken at some stage (through tectonic activity) and then partly re-healed. Deep mauve hexagonal books of Lepidolite mica are attractively scattered over the Tourmaline surface with some attached cream Cleavelandite (Albite) Feldspar on one prism face. An interesting Tourmaline from California.