Turquoise Jewlery

I was looking at some turquoise pendants recently, and got into finding out more about turquoise. Did you know the best quality turquoise comes from Iran??? In the United States, turquoise is found in the Southwest in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Chemically, a hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum, turquoise is formed by the percolation of meteoric or groundwater through aluminous rock in the presence of copper. For this reason, it is often associated with copper deposits as a secondary mineral, most often in copper deposits in arid, semiarid, or desert environments. Typically turquoise mineralization is restricted to a relatively shallow depth of less than 20 m, although it does occur along deeper fracture zones where secondary solutions have greater penetration or the depth to the water table is greater.

Natural turquoise is generally quite soft and porous. Because of its low density, hardness, and porosity, most turquoise must be stabilized before it can be used in jewlery. The turquoise is infused with a transparent synthetic resin. This is called “stabilized turquoise” and can be cut and polished to be used in jewelry. Over 95% of turquoise in today’s jewelry market is stabilized turquoise. Only a very small fraction of natural turquoise (less than 5%) of the turquoise on the market today is untreated turquoise. Turquoise with adequate hardness and density so as not to require epoxy treatment, is hard to come by and is quite expensive.

It is also important to note that Ebay and some other sites are replete with fake turquoise. Howlite, a form of calcite, and sometimes called white turquoise is used to manufacture fake turquoise. Howlite is infused with an epoxy resin and blue dye to mimic turquoise. The product is sometimes called “laboratory turquoise” or “created turquoise”, or even “stabilized turquoise” by some unscrupulous sellers! Beware!!