Tourmaline variety Dravite Yinniethara Western Australia
Tourmaline is a crystal silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classed as a semi-precious stone and the gem comes in a wide variety of colors. The name comes from the Sinhalese word "turamali" or "toramalli", which applied to different gemstones found in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The name dravite was used for the first time by Gustav Tschermak (1836 – 1927; Professor of Mineralogy and Petrography at the University of Vienna) in his book “Lehrbuch der Mineralogie” (published in 1884) for Mg-rich (and Na-rich) tourmaline from the village Unterdrauburg, Drava river area, Carinthia, Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today this tourmaline locality (type locality for dravite) at the village Dravograd (near Dobrova pri Dravogradu), is a part of the Republic of Slovenia (Ertl, 2007). Tschermak gave this tourmaline the name dravite, for the Drava river area, which is the district along the Drava River (in German: Drau, in Latin: Drave) in Austria and Slovenia. The chemical composition which was given by Tschermak in 1884 for this dravite approximately corresponds to the formula NaMg3(Al,Mg)6B3Si6O27(OH), which is in good agreement (except for the OH content) with the endmember formula of dravite as known today (Ertl, 2007).
Size: 3784px × 4468px
Photo credit: © Phil Degginger/Jack Clark Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: australia, crystal, crystals, dravite, exotic, gemstones, geology, mineral, minerals, rare, rock, rocks, silicate, specimen, specimens, tourmaline, variety, western, yinniethara
