Emerald (Be3(Al,Cr,V)2Si6018), a beryllium aluminum silicate, attributes its elegant deep clear velvetygreen color to trace amounts (parts per million) of chromium (Cr), vanadium (V), or iron (Fe). The green of the emerald represents rebirth of the seasons and of life, strength, and inner bliss. The emerald takes its name from its Greek word for color, “smoragdos,” meaning “green stone.” Because emeralds can be extremely fragile and brittle in combination with internal stress and sensitivity to pressure, care must be taken in heattreating them. In antiquity, they were cut into cabochon form either round or oval shape. This smooth treatment, which gives the stone polish rather than glitter, was succeeded by the so-called emerald cut, a rectangular shape with sharp angles or truncated sides. The emerald cut is now usually reserved for stones of exceptional transparency.

Colombia is the foremost producer of emeralds in the world. Muzo, above all, is the most famous of Colombia’s emerald mines. The Muzo region has roduced quality stones of matchless beauty for more than 1,000 years. Emeralds occur as six-sided (hexagonal) prismatic crystals found in acidic igneous rocks like granite, but also larger crystals form in pegmatites and in mica schists.

It has a hardness of 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness and is about three times as heavy as water. Inclusions are common flaws in emeralds, but they do not always reduce quality and value. A fine-colored highly prized deep green emerald may be of greater value than a diamond of comparable size. The largest single crystal of gem-quality emerald, weighing 7,025 carats was found in Colombia. The Smithsonian Institute has some beautiful emerald necklaces, rings, broaches, and faceted stones for viewing.

In 1993, a team of professional divers twelve miles off the Florida Coast in deep water discovered three Spanish ships dating back to the Colonial period. They brought up a load of incalculable wealth, including a skull cut from emerald rock crystal, 25,000 carats of cut emeralds, another 25,000 carats of polished emeralds, a number of emerald crystals weighing 24,644 carats, and hundreds of pieces of exceptional jewelry of Aztec and Mayan origin
with some of them pre-Colombian ceremonial objects of solid gold.

Localities: Colombia, Brazil, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Russia, and North Carolina in the USA.

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